Archive for Politics
July 3, 2009 at 5:59 pm · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, Economy, English, Foreign Relations, Human Rights, IDPs and Refugees, Politics, Post-War | by Sanjana
Two weeks after I had interviewed Prof. Tissa Vitharana on, among other things, the full implementation of the 13th Amendment, I spoke with the Leader of the JVP Somawansa Amarasinghe for his take on constitutional reform.
During the course of our interview, Mr. Amarasinghe came out strongly in favour of the rights of all minorities, the need to meaningfully look into the well-being of Tamils interned in IDP camps and the importance of a secular State. Recalling the violent history of the JVP, he suggested that it was government that pushed the JVP to violence, yet saw little parallel between this violence …
July 3, 2009 at 5:52 pm · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, Education, English, Politics, Post-War | by Sanjana
I began my conversation with Prof. Tissa Vitharana, Minister of Science and Technology and Chair of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) by asking him about the state of play in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Sri Lanka, and what exactly the declaration of 2009 as the Year of IT and English meant. We talked about work force development, business service outsourcing, the sustainability of nenasala’s (cybercafes) established by ICTA and efforts by his Ministry to promote IT across the island.
Over half of the programme was devoted to Sri Lanka’s constitutional dynamics, and in particular, options for constitutional reform that included the …
July 3, 2009 at 6:15 am · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, English, Human Rights, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics, Post-War | by Lionel Bopage
[Editors note: This is a detailed response to over 30 comments left on Sri Lanka: Is the war really over? and read over 2,500 times to date.]
Though several comments made on my article were not directly related to the topic, I wish to respond to some of the issues that have been raised.
The lop-sided comments about the JVP do neither take into account the context nor the causes for their insurrections. Political violence in Sri Lanka cannot be properly understood without recognizing its complex relationship with the socio-political establishment. When social groups vied for access to state power or when they demanded their just rights, the state used repressive and violent force against them. The political …
June 30, 2009 at 8:05 am · Categories: English, Peace and Conflict, Poetry, Politics, Post-War | by Indran Amirthanayagam
The island belongs
to centipede, rat,
butterfly,
lots of species
each with
their own habitats,
and supervising
all arable
and fallow land
the president king.
Minorities
may enjoy
clean living
in freshly cleared
forest patches,
welfare villages
with amenities
such as latrines
and tents,
gated communities.
June 28, 2009
Part of the Writers Under Siege collection on Groundviews. For more information, click here.
June 30, 2009 at 3:58 am · Categories: English, Politics, Post-War | by Dayan Jayatilleka
We have a once –in-generations chance to re-found Sri Lanka, to build Sri Lanka anew. To do so, we must be both hard and soft; and vigilant as hawks and as conciliatory as doves. We must be hard enough to obliterate what is left of the LTTE as an organization and surgically pre-empt any attempts at re-emergence, be they local or Diaspora-based and originated. We must be soft and malleable enough to arrive at a consensus with the non-Tiger Tamils as to the shape of the Sri Lanka we wish to build and live in.
Where do we start? With renovation, I suggest. The only available starting point is modest and realistic reform, namely the implementation of the 13th amendment to …
June 29, 2009 at 9:25 pm · Categories: English, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict, Politics, Post-War, Vavuniya | by Malinda Seneviratne
[Editors note: This article was published in The Sunday Island on 28 June 2009. Groundviews does not usually reproduce content first published elsewhere in print or online. In this case however, given that the Island's website has no mechanism to feature reader generated comments and because Rohini Hensman's article was exclusively published on this site, Malinda's response is republished with the expectation of continued dialogue between the two principal authors and comments from a wider readership. Those familiar with Malinda's initial trenchant comment to and critique of Rohini's article are also strongly encouraged to read Visit to ‘concentration camps’ in Cheddikulam published in The Nation, also on Sunday.]
Rohini Hensman is absolutely right when …
June 28, 2009 at 4:34 pm · Categories: English, Media, Peace and Conflict, Politics, Post-War | by Lionel Bopage
The end of the conventional war in the north and the east of Sri Lanka witnessed the almost total annihilation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) including its leadership. However, the Government forces are still carrying out clearing up operations throughout the island. Tens of thousands have been slaughtered; many thousands wounded; hundreds of thousands expelled from their habitats and many hundreds of thousands interned into camps. The deaths of the militants have been celebrated by the overwhelming majority of the Sinhalese and some of the Tamils and Muslims. The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) is allegedly engaged in destroying any incriminating evidence of its culpability in war crimes. The fate of three doctors, who were earlier praised …
June 27, 2009 at 2:22 am · Categories: English, Peace and Conflict, Politics, Post-War | by Dayan Jayatilleka
As Paul Berman once wrote, “somewhere in the world it is always 1941”. There comes a time in the life of every society when it is faced with an existential threat or challenge. It is the social forces or elements that rise up to this challenge and successfully overcome this threat that then have the power as well as the legitimacy to place their stamp on what comes after. Those who stood on the wrong side of history, or never rose to the occasion, or who abandoned the struggle partway, or simply failed; the defeated enemy, the collaborators, the appeasers and the fence-sitters — and these are not one and the same — all forfeit the chance to place …
June 22, 2009 at 6:32 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict, Politics, Post-War, Vavuniya | by Rohini Hensman
Image courtesy IRIN
Throughout the last stages of the civil war, the government of Sri Lanka claimed to be engaged in a hostage rescue mission on behalf of civilians in the Vanni who were being held against their will be the LTTE. How far are its words borne out by its actions?
It is certainly true that the LTTE was keeping hundreds of thousands of civilians hostage and using them as forced labour, a source of child and adult conscripts, and a human shield from behind which they could engage in offensive operations against Sri Lanka’s armed forces. It has also been confirmed that in general the soldiers showed compassion to the escaping civilians, and some even …
June 20, 2009 at 7:46 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Peace and Conflict, Politics, Post-War | by Vasantha Raja
Sri Lanka’s present administration is a “dictatorship masquerading as democracy” observed Prof. John Neelsen from the Institute of Sociology in Tuebingen, Germany. His judgement is not far from the truth. In this paper I shall argue that a virtual ‘Sinhala-Buddhist dictatorship’ has emerged in Sri Lanka as the outcome of the brutish military campaign that resulted in a humanitarian tragedy of scandalous proportions. Also, I shall show the colonial connection, particularly the British rule that sowed the seeds for the present political impasse in Sri Lanka.
Let me start with a brief description of the war that culminated in the destruction of the Tamil Tiger leadership along with its Tamil mini-state in Sri Lanka’s Tamil habitat.
Successive administrations in Sri Lanka succeeded …
June 19, 2009 at 4:47 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics, Post-War, Trincomalee | by Tanuja Thurairajah
It is a much analysed fact that the Tamils of Sri Lanka under the guidance of its leadership have missed many historically defined opportunities, in laying the foundation towards creating a decent future for their political aspirations and self determination. The 50 – 50 representation in Parliament instead of a federal constitution, a claim that seemed rightfully unreasonable to the Sinhalese; the vote in favour of the Citizenship Act of 1948 that deprived the citizenship of the plantation Tamils which was instrumental in conceiving the impression of the Tamils as lacking moral conviction and as being egocentric; the Sinhalese Only law of 1956; the Referendum of December 1982 leading to the subsequent 1983 racial riots and the Indo-Lanka Accord …
June 13, 2009 at 6:24 am · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, English, Peace and Conflict, Politics, Post-War | by Dayan Jayatilleka
The warning about the risk of triumphalism came days before the 65th anniversary celebration of D Day, by the leaders of the US, UK and France. In the USA there are annual re-enactments of the battles of the American Revolution – the War of Independence against Britain —and of the Civil War against the Secessionist Confederacy. While the risk of triumphalism does indeed exist and must be cautioned against, I think there is yet another risk, an opposite one, which we must avoid. The USSR which triumphed over the bulk of the Nazi fascist army, collapsed without a shot being fired, and that collapse was preceded by an ideological surrender in which everything positive in its history was turned …
June 3, 2009 at 5:20 pm · Categories: Economy, English, Politics | by Darini Rajasingham Senanayake
The US government, which wields considerable influence at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has sought to delay Sri Lanka’s USD 1.9 billion loan appeal. Washington’s hesitance is tied to the context of the humanitarian crisis that preceded the defeat and destruction of the LTTE and the killing of its leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. Sri Lanka needs the IMF loan to service its external debt, which has accumulated as a result of soaring defence expenditure as well as borrowing related to controversial oil-hedging deals. The government is also seeking funds for the reconstruction of the conflict-affected northeast.
The disbursement of the funds has also been a somewhat controversial issue outside Washington, DC. Initially, the United Nations Security Council had determined that it would …
June 3, 2009 at 8:35 am · Categories: Colombo, English, Peace and Conflict, Politics, Post-War | by groundviews
For live updates / tweets of the President’s speech at the National Victory Parade today in Galle Face, Colombo, click here or follow #srilanka on Twitter.
The speech is scheduled to begin at 9.10am local time (+5.30GMT).
June 1, 2009 at 4:21 am · Categories: Colombo, English, Foreign Relations, Peace and Conflict, Politics, Post-War | by Dayan Jayatilleka
“Sri Lanka forces West to retreat over ‘war crimes’ with victory at UN”
- The TIMES (London), May 28, 2009
“Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
…Mmm, I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends”
- The Beatles
Was Geneva the last battle of the Thirty Years (hot) war, the first battle of the next war – a long Cold War against Sri Lanka — or was it a combination? Only future history will tell.
When we aren’t involved, our arithmetic goes awry. We speak of four Eelam wars when there were five, because we omit the important one fought between the LTTE and the IPKF. There were five Eelam wars fought on the soil of our island: 1978-1987, …
May 30, 2009 at 7:00 am · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, English, Peace and Conflict, Politics, Post-War | by Publius
In response to a call by the Opposition and civil society to lift the state of emergency and to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in consequence of the end of the war, the Leader of the House Nimal Siripala de Silva informed Parliament last Tuesday, 26th May 2009, that the Government has no intention of doing so at present. The stated reasons are that the threat of terrorism continues, remaining LTTE cadres in hiding need to be weeded out, and investigations regarding those already in detention are incomplete.
This is a predictable and even unsurprising response from the government, because as students of states of emergency will know, the present government is acting in broadly comparable terms with both …
May 29, 2009 at 12:36 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Peace and Conflict, Politics, Post-War | by Inside Outsider
After a war is won, there is always the after thought. Leaders from conflict parties, either dead or living, will be portrayed either as martyrs, heroes, traitors, terrorists….the list is endless. Which ever side one takes on the debate of romanticising the vanquished or demonising him, it is always interesting to see what the other party has to say.
Have been observing the way in which people reacted in the post-war (can we say that yet?) context. Nationalistic spirit knew no bounds. Even the ardent opponents of the government praised its military campaign and the subsequent victory of annihilating the LTTE. The President would have been in a mental state, where ANY world leader would aspire to be in. Enviable position. …
May 28, 2009 at 12:12 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Peace and Conflict, Politics, Post-War | by Island Girl
Well it’s not exactly a hero. What we are really holding out for is a statesman - but that wouldn’t have made a catchy title. Yet it is a statesman that is needed in Sri Lanka at this juncture in its history. Having finally made it over the daunting hurdle of terrorism, which had us mired in a mud heap for so many decades, Sri Lanka is now emerging, scarred but optimistic, out of the wasteland of war. As flags fly in a uniting show of joy - a vast majority of people look forward with hope to a new dawn - a new country and another chance to catch up with the economic success of the nations around us.
To …
May 27, 2009 at 12:00 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Peace and Conflict, Politics | by Rohini Hensman
This year marks the twentieth death anniversary of Rajini Thiranagama, doctor, lecturer, feminist and human rights defender, and the first death anniversary of human rights lawyer and political activist Maheshwari Velauthan. The former was shot dead by the LTTE as she cycled home to her children after presiding over an Anatomy examination, the latter shot dead by the LTTE as she cared for her sick mother. They were among thousands of Tamils killed by the LTTE simply because they did not agree with it. For Tamil progressives like them, the defeat of the LTTE mitigates one source of terror.
The LTTE’s claim to be the sole representative of Sri Lanka’s Tamils could be sustained only by the physical liquidation of all …
May 25, 2009 at 6:18 am · Categories: Colombo, English, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics | by Dayan Jayatilleka
The degree of denial of Prabhakaran’s death within the expatriate Tamil consciousness is the best evidence of the pathology of Tamil ultra-nationalism. Rohana Wijeweera’s followers were fanatics, but when their leader was gone, they did not go into mass denial. The hardcore elements of the Tamil Diaspora really have to get their heads around it: Elvis has left the building. The Sun God has set, and his son won’t be rising either.
The Tigers were among the best known brands in the terrorist universe and by defeating them so completely and utterly Sri Lanka and its armed forces have made a contribution to regional and global security and stability. They have made an example of the Tigers …
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