Archive for Politics
May 14, 2008 at 3:57 pm · Categories: English, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics | by The Under Dog
By Under Dog
Amidst the bombs, the war, the white vans, and the checkpoints, I look back with fond memories of the ceasefire. It brought four glorious years of peace and prosperity, and also did what the naysayers said could never happen—it split the LTTE in two. Karuna, the LTTE’s fiercest combat commander, and an incessant thorn in our side during the ill-fated Jayasikurui operation, decided he wanted out. Perhaps he wanted a bigger share of the spoils from the LTTE money machine, perhaps more authority, or perhaps he had a lover’s quarrel with Prabhakaran (when the Dear Leader asked ‘do I look fat in this?’ he shouldn’t have recommended changing the uniforms to vertical stripes). Anyway, the …
May 11, 2008 at 8:41 am · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, English, Human Rights, Politics | by raja
Economic sanctions have been used for foreign policy objectives since the time of Ancient Greece.
The idea that economic sanctions might be an alternative to the use of force received attention after the First World War, largely owing to President Woodrow Wilson’s advocacy. Since World War II, Economic sanctions have been employed to promote democracy and human rights, to end civil war, to stop drug trafficking, to fight terrorism, to combat weapons proliferation, and to promote nuclear disarmament. Since the creation of the United Nations in 1945, the Security Council has imposed sanctions in fifteen cases: Southern Rhodesia (1966), South Africa (1977), Iraq (1990), former Yugoslavia (1991), Liberia (1992), Libya (1992), Somalia (1992), Angola (1993), Haiti (1993), Rwanda (1994), Sudan (1996), …
May 9, 2008 at 10:07 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Politics | by Leftie
It was a busy afternoon on the Galle Road in Moratuwa and I stopped my vehicle at a pedestrian crossing to allow a few women and children cross the road. The vehicle on the left lane also stopped and the people were now more than halfway across when a Matara bound Leyland bus squeezed through the left and overtook both vehicles along the curb, barely missing the people crossing the road. The bus then cut across to the right lane and nearly missed another bunch of people about to cross at another pedestrian crossing and sped away. The above scenario is a common site on our roads, but no one takes any action, so the unsociable behaviour from the bus …
April 29, 2008 at 10:46 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Peace and Conflict, Politics | by The Titular Republic
Any satisfactory answer to this question must examine, and consider the root causes for this problem; however, the solution must be sensitive to the numerous complexities brought about by the conflict itself. In the case of Sri Lanka, it would be naive examine this problem from a purely pre-1983 perspective.
The fundamental cause for this conflict is the perception by one race that the other race was privileged; there was a general perception racial inequality was prevalent. How did this perception arise? The origins lie in the 19th Century; the American missionaries established a wide network of schools in the Jaffna peninsula that molded an educated, English speaking group of people. The British then tapped into this ready pool of resources …
April 23, 2008 at 10:13 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Politics | by Michael Roberts
My interpretation of the present impasse in the politics of Sri Lanka, determined as it is by the competitive jostling-cum-conflicts between the three main ethnic groups (where “Muslim” is ‘ethnic’ by virtue of its relationship of opposition to “Sinhalese” and “Tamil” in the same sentence), leans towards an emphasis on how one should address present circumstances. Though I am a historian, I believe that delving into ancient history is of limited value for any exercise in rapprochement. Indeed, I would go further and insist that the circumstances of the immediate present, today in 2008, must mould any constitutional and economic arrangements seeking a modus vivendi. We cannot erase memories of the atrocities committed by all parties in the conflict that …
April 19, 2008 at 8:15 pm · Categories: English, Human Rights, Human Security, Peace and Conflict, Politics | by Ruki
If we knew the government will put us in an open prison, we would not have come, it would have better to die in the Vanni” Man being held in Kallimoddai after fleeing Vanni to “cleared” areas
Last year, I had helped a boy from Killinochi who was arrested in Pettah and kept in inhumane conditions, worse than a caged animal, in Welikada Prison. Treatment that should not be given to even a convicted criminal, though in this case, the boy was a suspect, the basis for suspicion being him being a Tamil and coming from Killinochi. He had fled the Vanni, as he feared recruitment by the LTTE. But only to fall prey to Sri Lankan security forces and suffer …
April 17, 2008 at 12:50 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Peace and Conflict, Politics | by Leftie
Our self esteem is central to our survival. Yet, we do not value its importance as we face life’s challenges. Self esteem, whether our own or others’, is strengthened or takes a beating, through the way people communicate with each other. This communication is based on our power in relation to others. So, the more hierarchical and controlling a system is, power is concentrated with a few people, chances are esteem of the people below is undermined.
What is good for people is also good for nations. So, nation’s success also depends very much on its population’s collective self esteem, which is also called social esteem.
If we define esteem as the confidence in our right to be happy, feeling …
April 14, 2008 at 1:32 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Politics | by Gamini Viyangoda
Image courtesy JVP website
Some priests in ascetic orders who indulge in carnal pleasures, though not very often, do get excommunicated. A prominent catholic priest of high rank in Europe who had allegedly abused a child some twenty years ago was disrobed recently, when the affected party unearthed that case. There are some Buddhist monks too who are not virtuous, but there is no effective mechanism to disrobe them. What happens often is that the person in question himself voluntarily quits the temple. Though they are frowned upon by society as Heeraluvas I esteem them for their courage and honesty in leaving a place where they don’t fit in anymore.
In a certain sense, Peoples …
April 12, 2008 at 7:01 pm · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, English, Peace and Conflict, Politics | by Publius
The constitutional reform debate in Sri Lanka is in a particularly enervated state as we approach the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, with a government in power that displays that bizarre concoction of procrustean infantilism that so characterised the Jayewardene and Premadasa attitudes to constitutional government and democracy: its thinking juvenile, its methods menacing. This has, in turn, lent a degree of respectability to secessionism it would not otherwise enjoy in world opinion. In fact, the supremacist ethno-nationalism which is at the ideological core of this government, and the simple-minded and unreflective obstinacy with which its dictates are pursued, raises a question that is at the heart of the liberal theory on self-determination and secession, but which Sri Lankan liberals, …
April 11, 2008 at 4:05 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Peace and Conflict, Politics | by Anupama Ranawana
Peace talks in Sri Lanka are temporarily on hold. The Ceasfire Agreement of 2002 has crashed and burned and the Norwegians and the SLMM have bid a quick but reluctant goodbye. To all intents and purposes, the country has been left to descend into its own spiral of ruin as the parties engage themselves in all out war. The exclamations and interjections of the nationalists have won and peaceniks, media professionals and the members of the international community now live like fiddlers on a rather shaky roof.
The author does not want to use this paper to discuss the reasons for the failure of the peace talks. Instead she would like to take a quick look here at foreign mediation, specifically …
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