Note: Contrary to what you might assume from the title, this is not a general onslaught on the diaspora at large. This is based on two recent incidents that really ‘got my goat,’ in a matter of speaking. Therefore, I’d like any readers who’d fall into the bracket of the ‘diaspora’ to please take the contents of this letter in that context, and not as an attack on anyone who’s ever stepped off the shores of sunny Lanka. Also, I’d like to add that I have absolutely no political affiliation or agenda to achieve by writing this. It was just two pieces of news that really got to me, so I just had to write this. That’s it.

Dear RCD,

I …

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From the first update after the close of polls at around 10pm on the 25th and then from around 3am on the morning of the 26th, Groundviews gave regular updates on the high drama in Colombo just after the presidential elections via its Twitter account. Because it is very difficult to locate these updates on Twitter over time, we’ve collated key tweets issued during the course of the 26th and 27th related to the elections.

In the course of publishing these updates, we mirrored key news items from the Daily Mirror website whenever we got access to it, because an unsurprisingly high volume of traffic rendered this well read traditional media website inaccessible for most of the 26th. Along …

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“Prabhakaran, a textbook fascist…” - The Economist (‘Victory for the Tiger Slayer’ Jan 28th, 2010)

“Resistance to imperialism does not of course involve only armed force or bands of guerrillas. It is mainly allied with nationalism and with an aroused sense of aggrieved religious, cultural or existential identity.”- Edward Said (‘The Voyage In: Third World Intellectuals and Metropolitan Cultures’)

It is easy to be wise after the event, so I usually try to be wise before it. In a piece originally entitled ‘Crisis 2010: The post election scenario’ published over a month ago, from Dec 20th 2009 through to the 23rd, in the Sunday Lakbima, Transcurrents, Sri Lanka Guardian and Ada Derana, this is how I saw the Presidential election panning …

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Aachcharya writing from Jaffna

I wrote on the 30th of December in a post to Groundviews (and republished in the Daily Mirror) that the assertion that the Tamil people would be deciders in the Presidential election would be a myth. There was nothing brilliant or extraordinary about what I said at that time, but it was contrary to public perception that was prevalent all over the country and in international media circles. What I suggested was that for the Tamil people to be deciders two conditions have to be fulfilled. I wrote:

“For the Tamils to be the deciders in the election (like they could have been in the last) they have to vote as a whole, to one candidate …

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January 28, 2010

Dear Mr. President,

Congratulations on your land slide victory which, like most Colombo elites, I was stunned by. Your spokesperson Dr R Wijesinghe quite rightly described us as shallow and lacking foresight and the common touch unlike the rural polity who rightly judged your true capability and potential based purely on your good governance and not by manipulation through crafty and cut throat state propaganda. We eagerly look forward to another six or maybe eight? years of glorious Mahinda Chinthanaya. We have full confidence in your wise and just governance which you have so clearly displayed during the past four years. Yes, you narrowly missed a foul coup plotted by your adversary which would have destroyed you and your …

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1. Sarath Fonseka lost. We no longer need to stress ourselves to a level requiring medication worrying about what he might do if he wins. We can stop pretending to like him.
2. Mahinda Rajapaksa can never ever run for President again (unless of course he changes the constitution).
3. Stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea, almost 75% of people still went out and voted. That’s always a good thing.
4. Almost 2% of the people voted for someone other than Mahinda and Sarath. That’s just awesome. We haven’t seen that in some time.
5. Compared to landslide victories in recent provincial council polls, 57.88% is a significant drop in popularity for the Rajapakse Government. (E.g. from 72.39% to 58.59% in Uva) This trend could hurt …
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Dear Mr. President,

I’d like to congratulate you in advance for your impending victory of the Presidential election in the following days to come. With the SLFP consolidating their power through the provincial council polls in the aftermath of the war, a presidential re-election and another term with you as President seems inevitable.

The potential in Sri Lanka knows no bounds; therefore boundaries must be clearly drawn so that this potential is not exploited by a few for themselves and for their kith and kin. This has undoubtedly taken place in Sri Lanka time and again, with every administration that has governed the country. This needs to be addressed by the authorities and checks need to come into play. For …

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I’ve been tweeting from around 3am this morning on what’s going on in Colombo after the elections, and in particular what is at the time of writing a rather tense situation around the hotel that presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka is residing in. Leading English mainstream media websites are crashing under the heavy load of web traffic, so mirrored links to key articles appearing in them about the current situation are also provided.

See all the updates on the Twitter feed of Groundviews.

“We vote to get president. We get president. But where our vote, we don’t know” was a line that I had saved from a news report on the Iranian presidential polls in June 2009. What ever the man on a Teheran street wanted conveyed, it meant the presidential election results and their voting had no compatibility.

What will it be here after 2010 January 26 presidential elections ? The election campaign here in SL is now “officially” over. Yet, there is campaigning going on. What would the result be ? Will it be “we get president. But where’s our vote” story ? Just 02 days more for the polls, what could the answer be ? Those who said, “it could be …

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It appears to be the most powerful electoral alliance that has ever been formed in the country.A political phenomenon, a coalition containing diametrically opposed political views led by someone without any formal political membership of any political party of the alliance he presides over. But how far will they march together either in their victory or defeat in the Presidential election on 26 January? Is it their last desperate attempt against a powerful political leader who has to be defeated at all cost, irrespective of their own closely guarded ideological and political beliefs? If not is the UNF an insolvable political contradiction that has been united by their political opportunism?

This article attempts to examine the political character of the parties …

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“And then I knew what to do.
I made a model of you,
A man in black with a Meinkampf look

And a love of the rack and the screw.
And I said I do, I do.”

“Daddy” by Sylvia Plath

If you can’t take my word for it, take that of Eric Hobsbawm, regarded not only as Britain’s greatest living historian but as ‘one of the outstanding historians of our age’ (Independent on Sunday). The Guardian says “Hobsbawm is one of the leading authors of the concepts and language in which all of us now discuss our situation”. It is indeed his language and concepts that help us understand why Mahinda Rajapakse is certainly my choice for president this time, given the choices available. …

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The 5th Presidential election in Sri Lanka is heading towards a photo finish. In this context once again the Tamil issue has become the political football in Sri Lankan politics. Let’s have a look at few recent election news headlines:

• “Defeat secret pact between Fonseka and Sampanthan; Give verdict against betrayal; Will never allow rebirth of LTTE – Rajapaksa”
• “On 27th I will abolish Rajapaksa – Douglas Agreement – Fonseka”
• “We challenge Fonseka to accept unitary state” – JHU, Rajapaksa camp
• “LTTE suspects released for President’s ‘support’ – Lanka Truth, Fonseka camp

There was a time that ethnic conflict and war in Sri Lanka was nicknamed as ‘the injury of the beggar’. Political parties were making use of the war to remain in power rather …

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The Salt Dividend
Catedral de Sal, Zipaquirá
El Dorado
Christopher Columbus never set foot in the country named after him; it was Alonso de Ojeda, one of his companions on his second voyage to the New World, who arrived at the mouth of the Orinoco River in 1499 CE.  The wealth of the local Amerindians, intricate gold jewelry and stories about inland treasures drove Spanish conquest into the interior.  One of the fantastic stories was about the ritual surrounding the king of the Muisca Confederate of Bacatá.  The Zipa, as he was known, would float into the middle of Lake Guatavita, strip and be dusted with gold.  He would offer great treasures to the sacred waters …

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Citizens are living through a politically decisive week with just days to elect Sri Lanka’s next Executive President. The next elected Chief Executive, unlike his predecessors, will acquire a unique place in the island’s political history as the country’s first post war president.  In many ways, it is an honour. It also comes with attendant problems, multiple challenges and unique opportunities.

As a violently fought campaigns draws to a close casting aside any hope of a free and fair poll, the main political platforms demonstrate a disappointing quality in their failure to address crucial issues that need urgent attention, a process that is mandatory to ensure the transition of a nation after 30 years of a protracted war.

Burden on state coffers
For …

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Colombo, 22 January 2010: Today marks exactly 250 days since Sri Lanka’s civil war officially ended on 18 May 2009.

On that momentous day, all Lankans shared at least one sentiment: a huge sense of relief. Many among us were euphoric, while some of us chose to be cautiously optimistic. It certainly was a defining moment, just like the tsunami had been four and a half years earlier.

In an emotionally charged essay written within 24 hours, I said: “I hope we can once again resume our long suspended dreams for a better today and tomorrow.” I later found that I had spoken for many.

We all knew the hard-won peace had to be nurtured and consolidated. We also realised just …

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With just about a week to go for elections and both candidates having gone public with their manifests along with the policy commitments, this is an opportune time to have a comparative look at what’s been offered by each of them.

The Fonseka camp has almost always been the first to come up with policy and welfare offers whereas Rajapaksa camp has been offering their side of the solutions thereafter. Up until recently, the Rajapaksa had focused the campaign on “votes for gratitude” rather than specific pledges to be expected during the next term. This was very evident on many occasions including the release of the election Manifesto, Issues Concerning Minorities, Cost of Living and Social Welfare to name a few.

Let’s …

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Harim Pieris, a former advisor to President Kumaratunga in the days that she had really lost touch with what was what in the country, has written the best piece so far on the strategy of the joint opposition at this Presidential election, with a clear if implicit indication that he thinks the strategy is likely to succeed (“Ranil’s Formula for the General’s success”, Daily Mirror Monday Jan 11th 2010). It’s a good article, a correct piecing together, but to my mind a bad analysis and latent prognosis. I may well be proven wrong and I shan’t go into the why of my demurral until after it is all over, in these crucial closing ten days of a most portentous election.

Speaking …

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The moment the TNA announced its support for the opposition presidential candidate, General Sarath Fonseka, the ruling party and the forces that back President Mahinda Rajapakse have begun to smell an international conspiracy with the help of the LTTE to destabilize and divide Sri Lanka.  According to them the very man who was mainly responsible for eliminating the Tigers has today turned out to be a Tiger supporter! The ‘Ali-kotti’ agreement of 2005 has today turned out to be a secret ‘Fonseka-kotti’ agreement.  Do these forces –‘the remnants from the Dark Ages as far as the national question is concerned, as (Prof. .Kumar David calls them,) consider the voters of this country to be so dumb as to believe this …

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The Presidential election of 2010 has brought out some of the most glaring delusions and dilemmas which shape the political stance of the Opposition, and which confront the voter, in particular. The run up to the election of 26th January has largely shown how bankrupt the political elements opposing President Rajapaksa are, which indeed is a great political tragedy – for while President Rajapaksa’s track record concerning notions of good governance is somewhat dismal, the alternative that is offered to the voter in the form of Sarath Fonseka and his political allies, is abysmal. In supporting Fonseka, numerous problems are conveniently forgotten, and people seem to be imagining that a country under the leadership of Fonseka would be a very …

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