Interview III – Dr. Harsha de Silva from Young Asia Television on Vimeo.

I recently spoke with Dr. Harsha de Silva, now a National List MP from the United National Party (UNP). I first interviewed Harsha a little over a year ago, on the context leading up to and the fall out of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail-out package and the general state of the Sri Lankan economy.

This time around we spoke about his entry into parliament, and one of the younger and more dynamic individuals entering for the first time into a chamber hitherto not known as …

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Shanthi Sachithananthan, the Chairperson of Viluthu, has been featured several times on Groundviews in the past, including an interview two months ago looking at significant developments in Sri Lanka after the demise of the LTTE and her views on the July 1983 pogrom against Tamils.

In this recent interview, Shanthi, who recently campaigned for political office in the parliamentary elections in April 2010 after forming an independent political party, speaks about her experiences interacting with voters from the Batticaloa district – the issues they confront, their aspirations and the extremely poor awareness of governance, representative democracy and electoral processes. Shanthi’s …

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Approximately one year ago on May 18th 2009, I wrote an article on Sri Lanka’s second “independence”, the spirit I fostered at the time is not reflected in this article one year later. On April 8th 2010, Sri Lankans went to the polls to vote.
Yet I did not vote. Many others did not as well. It is clear cut that Sri Lanka’s population did not feel that their vote counted, and rightly-so. Yet, was it wise NOT to vote? Perhaps if one thinks of it as legitimizing an increasingly theocratic government by participating in the hopelessly flawed façade of democracy, then it makes sense not to be a party to it. Post-conflict human societies are usually vacuums for militant or …

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‘the middle classes have always been the bulwark of society. Aristotle believed they were democracy’s secret weapon- the protectors of social values, the moderators of political extremism, rampart of reason over fiat, and believers in a society run by laws instead of by strongmen. They have also been the engines of economic growth’

Newsweek, 15/3/2010,from ‘The World’s New Middle Class’

It is with utter frustration, one sees, the total apathy and fatality with which the educated and informed segment of Sri Lanka’s polity are succumbing to the despicable level of bad governance, corruption, nepotism and its disastrous consequences on the economy and foreign relations. It seems like we are in a time warp – around 475 AD in the ancient kingdom of …

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The decision by the leader of the National Unity Alliance (NUA), Minister Ferial Ashraff’s to join the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in February 2010 raises serious questions for Muslim politics in Sri Lanka and minority politics at large. She did not announce a formal disbanding of NUA, the party’s fate remains unclear. Although NUA is not an exclusively Muslim party it emerged from and is closely linked to Muslim minority politics. A central question arising from this move is whether this is part of a larger shift away from minor and minority political parties which would give way to the consolidation of the major …

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Today, over 14 million Lankan voters get to elect a new government. They can also pick from among 7,620 candidates vying for 225 seats in the national legislature.

The election campaigns for the past many weeks have seen the usual glut of rhetoric and promises. Our endlessly bickering political parties rarely agree on anything, so it’s refreshing to see a broad consensus on what this election is fundamentally about: future prosperity.

That’s no coincidence. This is the first time we elect our law makers since the long drawn and brutal civil war ended in May 2009. We have been looking back – or nervously looking around — for much of the past three decades. It’s about time we finally looked forward.

How we …

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This general election would bring about a parliament with a clear majority. Few if at all, would dispute that. While there is also talk of a two-thirds majority in parliament for President’s UPFA, that possibility seems remote, unless the Southern voter goes berserk. That for the Sinhala voter is not that impossible and then, all calculations and forecasts could go haywire as well. Such are elections now in Sri Lanka. Wholly unpredictable with most faults conveniently left with computers and with post election reports by election monitors who had never been effective for the past 20 years at least.

Yet at this election, what is easily predictable is the quality of the parliament that would be elected. A parliamentary candidate from …

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The government wants a two thirds majority in order to replace the Constitution, it says. The UNP opposition hopes to form a coalition with other Opposition parties. It would be unhealthy for the body politic if the electorate were to grant the wish of either side. What would be healthy is for the Opposition to have a strong enough representation in the legislature so that a two thirds majority is out of reach for the government even by means of defections.

The most authoritarian administrations we have had have been those with a two thirds majority and the worst experiences we citizens have undergone, have been at the hands of governments enjoying a two thirds majority.  Of the three Constitutions we …

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Angry President tells jeering crowd to leave published in the Sunday Times today is a story based on reportage that first appeared on two sites on the web, Lanka Truth and Lanka News Web.

The version on Lanka Truth, published on 3 April, attributed contentious comments, outrageously derogatory towards the Tamil community, to the President in a rally held in Jaffna on 1st April. Two audio (MP3) files were embedded in this story. One in which the President says in Sinhala, translated to English on the site, “I am also a Sinhalese just like you, but I will speak only in Tamil, and if you cannot understand, then leave the venue”

I am also a Sinhalese just like …

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Ranil Wickremasinghe is the Leader of the Opposition in Sri Lanka, party leader of the United National Party (UNP) since 1994 and for the up-coming parliamentary elections, head of the United National Front alliance.

In this interview, Mr. Wickremasinghe both answers and dodges questions about the challenges to his leadership within the party, the acceptance of the UNP and its policies amongst voters, his ability to communicate policy, lessons learnt from his stint as Prime Minister from 2001 – 2004 and any regrets during or after the time of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA). He is also asked for his opinion of …

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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 …

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“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 …

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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 …

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Here we go again, or should I say here they come again, or is it here they go again?

In an opening scene in the movie 300, based on Frank Miller’s freely rendered comic book version of the battle of Thermopylae in Herodotus’ Histories, Spartan king Leonidas boots an arrogant  emissary of Persian king Xerxes into a deep well with the rejectionist exclamation ‘This is Sparta!’. My gut or shall we say knee-jerk reaction to the Global Tamil Forum, the endorsements by Gordon Brown, David Miliband and William Hague, and Tamil Diaspora expectations of a Balfour Declaration with Miliband as Balfour, would be the equivalent: ‘This is Asia – and the 21st century!’

I am hoping that will not have to be …

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One evening we boisterously debated on the conduct of the last Presidential Elections. Some blamed the President and supporters, some Ranil Wickremesinghe / Sarath Fonseka and supporters, R. Samapanthan and Somawansa Ameresinghe and others posthumously bashed Velupillai Prabhakaran for the “sin” he committed in November 2005. Also, Dayananda Dishanayake received enough criticism.

Dayanada Dishanyake whom we call ‘Dissa Malli’ is my close friend for 40 years. He was DRO Laggala-Pallegama where he brushed with death during the 1971- JVP insurgency. JVP came for him but he was with me in Matale. The vociferous JVP criticism of him now may be ‘delayed revenge’!  He was DRO- Haputale when I invited him to join the Elections Department to facilitate my release to …

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The 24th of February marked the first month anniversary of the disappearance of Prageeth Ekneligoda, the Lanka E-News journalist. Two special Police teams are said to be on the case.  They have however, not come up with any information as to Ekneligoda’s whereabouts.

Ekneligoda’s disappearance is yet another statistic of shame in the long list of disappearances, abductions and extra-judicial killings that have targeted the media in particular over the last four years.  His disappearance, it should be noted, took place in the course of a presidential election campaign the first post –war island-wide electoral contest in this country for two decades.  The war – the one that it between the GOSL and the LTTE is over and cannot be cited …

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The sudden and allegedly suspicious death of former General Secretary of the UNP and Minister of Transport, Highways and Civil Aviation, Gamini Athukorala (in 2002) seemed to have marked the end of a critical phase in Ranil Wickremasinghe’s political career; a phase which spanned from the early 1990s to 2002. During this phase, Ranil saw most of the charismatic and senior colleagues in the UNP being assassinated [President Premadasa, Lalith Athulathmudali (then in the DUNF), Gamini Dissanayaka et al], or pass away (Gamini Athukorala). The deaths of these leaders, almost effortlessly and unwittingly made Ranil the undisputed Leader of the UNP, as well as of the Opposition, and more importantly, made him remain there without much trouble.

The next critical phase …

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I have always argued that the deepest division in Sri Lanka is not the so-called ethnic divide but the split between supporters of democracy and supporters of totalitarianism, and the presidential elections proved this point. Bitter arguments within the Sinhalese community generated by the candidacy of Sarath Fonseka completely demolished the manufactured image of a community united behind Mahinda Rajapaksa which had been projected immediately after the end of the war. There was understandable relief among Sinhalese that there would be no more bomb blasts in buses, trains, shops and markets, no more young men being sent to the front to die in their thousands or come back disabled. But this did not necessarily translate into universal approval for Rajapaksa.

Gratitude …

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I have read and heard of W. Dahanayake travelling to Colombo from Galle in the morning “Ruhunu Kumari” train with all those other ordinary passengers, getting off at the Kollupitiya station to go to his ministry in Union Place, when he was Co-operative Minister in the J.R. Jayawardne government. That was in early 1980′s.

There were other MPs and Ministers too in the past, who used to travel by train to Colombo, to attend parliamentary sessions. Some even booked sleeping berths, for they travelled through night from Jaffna or Badulla, to be in parliament for the morning sessions. None of them then would have ever thought of themselves being elected representatives of the people, going about with armed security escorting them. …

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Are we honestly serious in wanting democracy, our rights and human development, to live in Sri Lanka ? If we are, how are we seeing to it, that we do really enjoy such a luxury in this beleaguered nation ?

All what had been happening and allowed to happen, don’t in any way even hint that this country is at least serious about living by the day, leave alone democracy, rights and development for the future.

If the people were serious, this society would not be entertaining any of the rubbish that is doled out as politics and promises by political leaderships, blue, green or red, at every election for 62 years. If the people are serious, this country would not have …

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