The President has proposed to make changes to the constitution via an urgent bill.  The changes known as the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, seek to remove the two term limit on being elected to the office of the President and the Constitutional Council under the 17th Amendment.  As required under the Constitution, the President has referred the urgent bill to the Supreme Court.  Supreme Court heard the Government’s arguments and the arguments of six intervening petitioners on Tuesday 1 September 2010.  These changes have not been discussed in the public domain and they are sought to be made in secret.  It is important to note that even at the Supreme Court hearing the intervening petitioners were only given copies …

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Rohan Edrisinha lectures at the Law Faculty, University of Colombo and is also a Director at the Centre for Policy Alternatives. In this succinct interview conducted by Vikalpa today, Rohan flags serious concerns over the government’s proposed 18th Amendment to the Constitution. Salient points made by Rohan are,

• Significant problems with the process through which the Amendment was introduced – it was rushed, not consultative and couched in secrecy. Few outside government even had access to the proposed Amendment before it was sent to the Supreme Court.
• The Amendment goes against the promises in the President’s own Mahinda Chintanaya in 2005 and 2010.
• Completely undermines the 17th Amendment, with severe implications for, inter alia, the conduct of …
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Internal Armed Conflicts, Humanitarian Laws and the Curious Transformation of Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala by Kalana Senaratne on Groundviews flagged a number of pertinent questioning arising from the media reportage of Jayantha Dhanapala’s submission to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recently.

On our Facebook page as well as through numerous emails sent to the Editors, many present at this session of the LLRC said that media reports, including those on the Ministry of Defence website of Jayantha Dhanapala’s submission were extremely biased and inaccurate. We publish below a response to these reports by Jayantha Dhanapala as well as his written submission to the LLRC.

…

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Photo courtesy Global Zero

Numerous reports suggest that Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala had some interesting things to say when he appeared before the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recently; about aspects relating to the interference of certain States in the internal affairs of other States; about the R2P concept; about the Sri Lankan Armed Forces carrying out a daunting humanitarian operation, saving 300,000 innocent civilians kept as a human shield by the LTTE and thereby preventing a certain ‘holocaust’ (The Daily News, 26 August 2010; The Ministry of Defence (defence.lk), 25 August 2010).

Thereafter, he had said the following too: that there was a need for an international protocol …

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On our way to the first scheduled hearing of Northern Muslims who were expelled by the LTTE in 1990, we spotted a group of men working hard out in the open, under the midday sun, and we stopped to have a conversation with them. Eight days earlier they had made their way from Puttalam to Marichchakatty with the goal of initiating the ‘journey home’ after the expulsion almost two decades ago.  Happy to leave their landless status in Puttalam and their livelihood as daily wage laborers, they were looking forward to reclaiming their lost lives as farmers and fishermen in their native villages. Although the end of the war heralded a new era and sparked hope of ‘returning home’ the …

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Interview III – Tissa Jayathilaka from Young Asia Television on Vimeo.

In this interview, Tissa Jayatilaka speaks about the Ceylon of his childhood and the experience of being part of the last batch of students enrolled at the University of Ceylon. Tissa also talks about the tumultuous period during the 1970s, the roots of the conflict and flags the opportunities as well as challenges facing post-war Sri Lanka.

Finally, Tissa speaks of academia, literature and his experience as one of the first members of the Council for Liberal Democracy, a think-tank that was founded in 1981, and of his friendship …

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Prof. Sumanasiri Liyanage, who has written to Groundviews regularly, teaches political economy at the University of Peradeniya, is a well-known political analyst, columnist and on the Board of the South Asia Peace Institute (SAPI).

We began our short conversation with the crisis facing the main opposition party in Sri Lanka, the United National Party, flagging serious issues others on this site like Dayapala Thiranagama have also noted. Prof. Liyanage’s critique of the party stems from his observation that in recent years it has lost sight of a political party’s raison d’être – the capture of political power as opposed …

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Image courtesy Transcurrents

Introduction

The current crisis in the UNP has thrown its grassroots supporters into a sense of hopelessness and disappointment about the future of the party. No political party can afford to let itself disintegrate and disappear from the political stage. If the present crisis is not resolved, it leaves behind a power vacuum and renders whole section of society unrepresented. The UNP’s disunity has already undermined its power, a weakening that would be compounded by a hemorrhaging of its supporters.

Throughout its political journey into maturity and beyond, the UNP has always been able to attract ideologically and politically different individuals and social groups to face dramatic changes …

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We last featured Rohan Edrisinha in February, just after the Presidential election on 26th January. Rohan, who lectures at the Law Faculty, University of Colombo and also a Director at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, at the time flagged serious concerns over the implementation of the 13th and 17th Amendments, as well as the tragic irrelevance of the APRC in the process of constitutional reform.

These are also issues flagged in this video, where Rohan expresses his impatience with ideas such as the post of an Executive Prime Minister, which he notes is not just confusing, but dangerous to boot since …

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In June 2010 the Minister for Resettlement, Milroy Fernando stated that there were 60,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka and that the Government would resettle them by August 2010. With some 30,000 IDPs remaining in Menik Farm at the end of July it would not be impossible for the Government to close the camp down and meet this self-imposed deadline.

With the movement of these IDPs it would not be too unexpected if the Government was to announce that there are no more IDPs in Sri Lanka. It would also not come as too big a surprise if the Government would phase out the Resettlement Ministry, as a part of the expected cabinet re-shuffle when the President …

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The story about Minister Mervyn Silva tying a Samurdhi Officer to a tree as punishment for not participating in a dengue prevention programme in the Kelaniya district was bad enough. The statement made by the UPFA General Secretary, Susil Premajayantha that the party or the government is not responsible for the actions of Minister Mervyn Silva opens up far more serious issues.   What we can infer from what the UPFA General Secretary said, is that neither the UPFA nor the government has any control over its Ministers.  The pertinent question then is:  who is in control? Surely,  we not are supposed to believe that the Cabinet of Ministers act as individuals and are not accountable to anyone in the government?

Minister Premajayantha consciously or unconsciously has …

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Enough conceptual theories are produced and articulated on the need and urgency of the political power sharing in Sri Lanka. Avoiding the torturous repetition and gauging the current diminishing appreciation for any theoretical discourse or appetite for challenging conceptual explanations, we suggest the following five points abstract as a summary of recommendation for a new constitutional re-arrangement for a stable/unitary, yet democratic and modern Sri Lanka

Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka 2015
Structure of Administration

1. Confirm the State of Sri Lanka as a unitary state
2. Constitutionalize the devolution of political and administration powers to
3. 5 recognised Provinces
   1. Northern Province
   2. Eastern Province
   3. Central Province
   4. Southern Western (From Puttalam to Kalutara)
   5. Southern Province and
4. 3 Special Zones ( under direct Prime Minister rule)
   1. Colombo District
   2. Kandy District (Total rule under Buddhist laws and Sangha …
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My name is Madduma Bandara — a brave young journalist working for Ceylon Daily Lies. I am going to tell you the story of a Sri Lankan Tamil woman by the name of Sivapuranam Sivahamy. What follows is consistent with the official policy of CDL, “we report, you decide.” Permit me to engage your imagination a bit.

Sivahamy comes from a farming family in the north of Sri Lanka, a poor village about 15 miles from Jaffna town. They had enough to eat, but not much more. When the family is away in the fields, leaving the children at home, Sivahamy’s older sister takes charge of the cooking, but wouldn’t let anyone have their evening meal, however hungry her younger siblings …

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How can evil ever be low intensity? It is similar to a low intensity cyclone. It appears to be a misnomer. However it does really exist. A depression given the right conditions which causes spinning and convergence in the atmosphere becomes a highly damaging cyclone. Wisely meteorological institutions track depressions before they become cyclones due to their harm potential. Should not we be aware as to low intensity evil?

The celebrated author Miroslav Volf refers to low intensity evil as a complete system, which prevents others, from obtaining economic, social or psychological necessities through domination. It is low intensity because it is not outright persecution. Sadly it has the ability to work subversively trapping a naïve populace into believing in …

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Good Afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen and dear friends

I want to start my talk by bringing to the fore the experiences of another, which was seen as an intractable conflict – the apartheid struggle in South Africa.

In 1984, Mandela single handedly launched negotiations with the Afrikaner government. His reasons were simple and unambiguous.

There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile for us to continue talking peace and non-violence — against a government whose only reply is savage attacks on an unarmed and defenseless people. And I think the time has come for us to consider, in the light of our experiences at this day at home, whether the methods which we have applied so far are adequate.

He …

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Released exclusively on Groundviews, this is a composite document compiled by Yogarajan and Kariapper and made public by them (read the full background to this document in their introduction).

Please note that as Nizam Kariapper pointed out to Groundviews, there is a mistake in the first page of this version of the report – the reference to June 2010 should read as June 2009.

• Download the complete report here.
• Download the executive summary of the report here.

Some excellent goals scored, some unbearable moments of anguish celebrated as teams win and lose in an imperfect system, some stunning comebacks, terrible bouts of pain vanishing instantly once the arbitrator with a whistle awards a free kick, the tears of the Japanese, the despair of the Ghanians’, incompetent referees sent out to save face, all making a wonderful festival of sport.  All in all we have been witness to a wonderful world cup. FIFA president Sepp Blatter called it an emotional one. Emotional because we saw more than soccer in South Africa. We saw a nation healing. We witnessed what could be an answer for the modern tribalism, which is engulfing our world.

It was seen in a flag being …

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Groundviews received the executive summary of the APRC’s final report today. Download the report here.

Salient features covered in the Executive Summary include:

• Nature of the State
• Form of Government
• Status of Buddhism
• Official languages and national languages
• Use of the English language
• Supremacy of the constitution
• Safeguards against secession
• Electoral system
• Power sharing
• Senate
• Community Council
• Distribution of powers between central and provincial
• National and provincial higher appointments council
• Amendment procedure

This interview features Dr. A. C. Visvalingam, President, Citizen’s Movement for Good Governance. I ask him about his advocacy and activism in Sri Lanka, both during war and post-war. Mr. Visvalingam bemoans the fact that a number of articles, despite close ties to Editors and journalists, did not appear in the newspapers, and also speaks of the corporate sector’s risk averse nature especially around content produced that is critical of government and governance. He also speak about the need to introduce civic education in schools to bring about a greater awareness over the role and responsibilities of citizens. He goes on to …

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Dr. Lakshman Marasinghe (Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Windsor) in an article titled ‘Some Random Thoughts on the UN International Advisory Panel’ (Daily Mirror, 14 July, 2010), makes a serious suggestion to the Government; i.e. to obtain an Advisory Opinion (AO) from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, to determine “whether it was within the power of the Secretary-General to appoint an Advisory Panel mandated as he has when appointing it.” He admits that he is “unable to suggest a political solution” to what he considers to be a matter which raises an “interesting point of international law.”

Dr. Marasinghe’s suggestion, in turn, raises greater problems, and is a risk that Sri Lanka cannot afford to take …

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