In Sri Lankan politics, things oftentimes turn topsy-turvy. When people asked for lower prices for basic food items, government lowers prices of luxury cars with absolutely feeble argument that the latter would in turn benefit people. The same thing appears to be unfolding in the sphere of constitutional reforms. In the last Parliamentary Election, one of the key appeals that the United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance made was that the UPFA be given two third seats of the new Parliament so that it can amend the Second Republic Constitution changing the system highly criticized electoral system. People appeared to have accepted the necessity of changing the electoral system that have created intra-party conflict for preferential vote (manapa pore)with heavy campaign expenses …

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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 …

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Many questions with regard to democratic values and system of government in Sri Lanka have surfaced in recent years and it has been argued by some that Sri Lanka is heading at accelerating pace towards an authoritarian regime similar to that can be found in countries like Zimbabwe. An assassination of media persons, curtailment of civic rights, death threats for dissidents, non-implementation of relatively democratic amendments to the constitution are depicted as symptomatic of this trend. In this note, I argue that this analysis lacks theoretical consistency as well as empirical substance and reveals major flaws in Sri Lankan democratic discourse. In a nutshell, my main argument here is that in recent years Sri Lanka has shown a clear tendency …

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This is one of the subjects that has in recent years put me in constant confusion. To situate my confused status in its context, let me begin with a personal note. In the 1960s when I began my political praxis, I had very clear and precise a position on the subject of democracy. I observed the presence of certain democratic values, forms and institutions in Sri Lanka and while recognizing their importance especially for left politics, I branded this democracy as a bourgeois democracy giving primacy to the adjective rather than to the noun. My firm perception was that in order to make democracy complete and perfect, the capitalistic mode of production that imposed many constraints on democracy had to …

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All appear bleak in the global economy as Group of 20 leaders gathered in London on Thursday, April 1, 2009. The financial crisis that began in last September has morphed into a severe global recession and it would turn into the worst downturn since the World War 2. OECD chief economist Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel observed that “the world economy is in the midst of its deepest and most synchronized recession in our lifetimes, caused by a global financial crisis and deepened by a collapse in world trade”. The World Bank forecasts contraction of 1.7 per cent in the global economy this year. According to the International Monetary Fund, the global economy will contract this year by between 0.5 and 1 …

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This is the text of the speech delivered at the seminar organized by NIPU on December 21, 2008.

Since the late 1980s, there has been a general consensus that the Second Republican Constitution enacted in 1978 and the state structure set up by it should be replaced by a new constitution based on a new set of principles. It has also been emphasized that a legal foundation for a new state structure that is radically different from the state structure existed since 1948 should be placed. Prior to the Parliamentary and Presidential elections of 1994, discussions on this subject in different fora took place and new constitutional principles were delineated.  At least two areas of the Second Republican Constitution (SRC) that …

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The proximate cause that led me to write this article was a question asked by a friend of mine who earn his daily income by selling sundry items in Kandy pavement. He is known to me for almost 40 years as we were members of the same political party in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been always a careful observer of events that have been taking place in national and international political arena. His question reads like this: “Comrade, it seems that the LTTE will be definitely defeated in the military front soon. Since it has been a military-politico organization, I think it would weaken or even disappear with the military defeat. So don’t you think Sri Lanka’s situation …

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“What’s going on just now? What’s happening to us? What is this world, this period, this precise moment in which we are living?” –Michel Foucault

Two incidents that happened within a period of 48 hours signified a major blow to media freedom and democracy in Sri Lanka. In the first incident, the main complex of Sirasa TV was attacked and its equipments were destroyed. According to reports, this attack was carried out by about group of 20 armed persons. The second incident that happened in day light on busy road in a Colombo suburb was the killing of Lasantha Wickramathunga, the editor of Sunday Leader by unidentified gunmen. All circumstantial and historical evidence has made me feel that these cowardly attacks …

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Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, has described the current financial crises as “probably a once-in-a-century event”. Does he mean very long Kondratiff cycle? In a recent speech, French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared that “laissez-faire is finished, the all powerful market that always knows best is finished”. The crisis began at the financial end of the system, but appeared to be extending gradually to the real segment of the economy. The US motor industry has already come up begging for a bail-out plan. Last few months have witnessed that big companies that everyone though too big to fall have either submitted for bankruptcy, or been bailed out by the US government or been statized. This list includes …

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One of the well-known parts of Francis Bacon’s philosophy is his enumeration of what he calls “idols” by which he means bad habits of mind that cause people to fall into error. One is “idols of the market-place”. Though I use it in different sense, some respondents to my article have demonstrated that they have difficulty of escaping from what is generally called TINA (there is no alternative) mindset. I am not surprised if the respondents to my article are young economics graduates as nothing other than the neo-liberal economics is taught in their class rooms. I will confine myself here to substantial arguments and no intention deal with substantial criticisms though they are valid within limits. Suffice is to …

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Although I teach economics at the University of Peradeniya for my bread and butter, I have been quite distant from the discipline for sometime and my readings on the subject has been quite limited to the two courses I teach at the university. My principal research work is on conflicts. Hence, it was not strange for people to call me oftentimes as a teacher attached to the Department of Politics. However, in the last three four months, I had to re-enter this interesting area of work as I was invited to make comments on two books, one in Sinhala (Sri Lanka Arthikaya edited by O G Dayarathna Banda et al) and one in English (Development and Conflict by Kumar Rupesinghe). …

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Sumanasiri Liyanage

Dr Pradeep Jeganathan’s dinner experience in Delhi with a French anthropologist reminded me a recent meeting I happened to have with a European high level diplomat in Sri Lanka. Referring to the recent events in Sri Lanka, he said: “I would be worried if similar things have happened in Balkans or even in India, but I am not worried at all for what is happening in Sri Lanka”. Is this a difference between an anthropologist who in Dr Jeganathan’s account was superficially worried about Sri Lanka and a diplomat who has been here for quite a long time but least worried about the Sri Lankan events? The diplomat in my story was rather angry as international …

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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 …

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By Sumanasiri Liyanage

Somewhere in 2003 when the issue of interim administration for Northern and Eastern Provinces was raised, some, including myself, argued that the country should adopt an interim or transitional constitution including power-sharing arrangement for the war-ravaged provinces.
The idea behind this suggestion was that other important constitutional issues such as all powerful executive presidency with almost no checks and balances and politicization of the bureaucracy may also be addressed in such an interim constitution. However, there was no serious debate on this subject partly due to the political changes that took place in the late 2003 and early 2004. Moreover, it was made clear that no significant change can be initiated without the consent of the executive president.

Things have …

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The United National Party has changed its policy on ethno-political question and stated that it would withdraw from a federal type solution to a unitary solution that would be based on the 13th Amendment to the Second Republic Constitution. Clarifying this change, its spokesperson, Ravi Karunanayake, even used words decentralization and devolution as synonym. At a meeting in Monaragala, Ranil Wickramasinghe talked about adopting a policy framework that is doable. This change in UNP policies may be a shock to Colombo civil society, but it would not be a shock for someone who carefully observed the political line of Ranil Wickramasinghe since 1987. He took anti-Indo-Lanka Accord position in 1987; he refused to participate fully Parliamentary Select Committee procedure in …

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The discussions at the All-Party Representative Committee (APRC) have taken a significant turn in the last two three weeks and its indefatigable chairman, Minister Tissa Vitharana, appears to have given in to the pressure of the Sinhala nationalist elements. All the signals show that the APRC final report would suggest that the unitary character of the Sri Lankan state be preserved. The expectations that Minister Vitharana would at the end of the day be able to reveres the incorrect move taken by his senior colleague, late Dr Colvin R de Silva, 35 years ago would remain unfulfilled. The pressure has come from the three Sinhala nationalist parties, Janata Vimikthi Peramuna, Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and Jathika Hela Urumaya, …

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In his Mahaweera Day speech in 2005, Vellupillai Pirapaharan, the LTTE leader, depicted Ranil Wickremesinghe as a calculating fox who tried to deceive everyone by entering into a ceasefire agreement with the LTTE. Ranil Wickremesinghe has once again shown his foxy behaviour in his comments on the capture of Thoppigala by the security forces of the Government of Sri Lanka. His initial position was that capturing Thoppigala would be a useless exercise as it is worthy only for collectors of fire-wood.

However, at the signing of a MoU with the SLFP (M), Ranil Wickremesinghe claimed that under the Wijetunga-Wickremesinghe regime, Thoppigala was captured by the security forces. Did he mean that Thoppigala was strategically important then but not now? As I …

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Ranil Wickramasingha and his party spokespersons are quite worried these days about the way in which Toppigala operation was carried out by the security forces. Wickramasinghe’s initial position is capturing Thoppigala is useless exercise as it is worthy only for collectors of fire-woods. As I have no knowledge in military strategy and I have no idea to get access to that sphere of knowledge, I do not wish to comment on that. Ranil Wickramasinghe and his associate Lakshman Kiriella, MP for Kandy, came up with another criticism about Thoppigala operation. They alleged that the security forces allow the LTTE leaders including Ramesh and its cadres to escape from Thoppigala with all military hardware that includes multi-barrel …

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My article, in Sinhala, is a brief sketch on Mangala Samaraweera’s dramatic break from the SLFP and the introduction of his third-way of politics. I raise a note of skepticism ont he eventual fate of his policies and vision, but accept as necessary and vital his voice and alternatives to the dystopia brought about by the incumbent political regime.

I also submit that for Mangala’s third way to succeed and to elicit the potential support of progressive members of the SLFP partial to his vision, he needs to maintain a healthy distance from the UNP. The potential of the third way and political alliances in support of it is not insignificant. At a time when even political rhetoric plays a vital …

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Taken from Al Jazeera

Transforming State media
Recent reports in the State media loudly proclaimed the President’s desire to depoliticise State media and his instructions to this effect. As pointed out in the Free Media Movement statement in response to the President’s comments, President Rajapakse had ‘pointed out that the government owned media should play a pivotal role in portraying the government’s development work’ and the need ‘for an effective role by the media to project the country’s situation to the international community at a time where various people were trying to tarnish the country’s image by engaging in a slanderous campaign abroad.’

I am deeply skeptical of the President’s avowed desire to reform State media. …

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