Archive for April, 2007

Protecting the spectrum for media freedom

Nalaka Gunawardene is a science writer and media watcher. He writes a blog on media and society. This article is adapted and expanded from the author’s panel remarks made during the OUR Media 6 international conference held in Sydney, Australia, from 9 to 13 April 2007 and was first published on Media Helping Media. On May 3, the annual World Press Freedom Day will once again be observed worldwide, focusing public attention on a multitude of threats to freedom of expression through the mass media. But amidst the extremely relevant and necessary slogans, we are unlikely to hear this slogan: Hands off our spectrum. Yet saving our spectrum is critical for ensuring media freedom. The electro-magnetic spectrum has been called the ‘invisible wealth of nations’, and all broadcasting using the airwaves relies on the fair, equitable and sound management of this common property resource. And as economic and cultural practices move more and more into the digital realm, the spectrum’s…

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On the Air to Tamil Eelam?

A.Vaitheeswaran In 1984 (remember George Orwell’s Animal Farm?), in an interview given to Anita Pratap of India Today (popular monthly news magazine published in New Delhi), Veluppillai Pirapakaran admitted that he was a flaming fan of Clint Eastwood and watches his films to get clues for daring guerilla attacks against political opponents and Sri Lankan security forces. Thus, Pirapakaran confessed that his role model was not M.G.Ramachandran (a popular film idol turned politician of Tamilnadu state in India), but Clint Eastwood (a heroic villain of Hollywood fame). In cinema M.G.Ramachandran portrayed himself as a do-gooder whereas Clint Eastwood portrayed himself as a violent heroic villain. Therefore, true to his confession, Pirapakaran, in real life, has emulated Clint Eastwood and always resorted to violence. He wanted to become famous, not by doing any good for the people whom he self-chose to represent, but by unleashing terror against his enemies within his own community, outside his community, and even outside his country….

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Causing a storm in a tea plantation

The plight of the Sri Lankan tea plantation worker is a well known issue in the country, and even though the law now grants them with full citizenship rights, the real story is that these rights are very often not realised. Plantation workers are mainly Tamils of Indian origin who were brought to the island in the late 19th century by the British. Being largely confined to the tea estates on which they earned their pitiful living, workers formed their own communities. Being so heavily dependent on the tea estate owners for most of their basic needs such as healthcare, housing and water access, these communities have almost always existed socially and economically isolated from the rest of the country. As a by product of this, plantation workers to this day suffer from low self-esteem, ill health and also have poor levels of education and language barriers to contend with. There have been countless reports of instances where tea estate…

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Amidst shackles – Notes of a citizen journalist

In this article I explore two issues. One, the murder of Don Bolles in America and the other, the recent virulent verbal attack by the Defense Secretary against Champika Liyanaarachchi, Editor of the Daily Mirror, on the 17th of April. The first section is in essence a paean for investigative journalism that’s instructive for those in the media field in Sri Lanka. The second section explores some of the recent disturbing trends that colour media freedom in Sri Lanka, and increasingly, the lack thereof. I note that it’s two years since Sivaram was brutally killed, with no investigations active to bring the culprits to book. I end on a solemn note, lamenting the strangulation of free media in Sri Lanka by forces who have no patience for the human rights and freedom that are a sacrosanct facet of the democracy Sri Lanka claims to be. Read the full article, in Sinhala, here. Repost This Article

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The flipside of Islamic fundamentalism in Sri Lanka

Reproduced with the kind permission of the author, and first published in the Hindustan Times. The flipside of Islamic fundamentalism in Sri Lanka PK Balachandran Kattankudy (Eastern Sri Lanka), April 24, 2007 Islamic fundamentalism in Kattankudy in the Eastern Sri Lankan district of Batticaloa, is multifaceted. It has both regressive and progressive aspects, though to the naked eye of the fleeting visitor, only the former is visible. Fundamentalism has united previously disparate entities while creating new barriers. It has infused intolerance of some types, but at the same time, liberated sections of society from the thraldom of traditional practices and ideas described as “outdated”, “un-Islamic” or “superstitious”. Strange though it may seem to outsiders fed on Afghanistan’s medieval Talibani fundamentalism, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Kattankudy has given a boost to women’s education and empowerment and narrowed the man-woman gap. Opportunities in West Asia for employment and the impoverishment of the Tamils due to militancy and war from the…

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The Offensive Defence Secretary Must GO!

The infamous telephone call by the Defence Secretary to the Editor of the Daily Mirror and its fall out is most revealing of the times we live in and the regime we live under.  Whilst the defenders of the Defence Secretary’s actions contest the abusive and threatening nature of the call, they leave unanswered the question of as to why the call had to be made in the first instance.   Given the government /media relations in recent times, it is difficult to imagine how even a polite telephone call from the defence establishment can be construed as not carrying with it a hint of menace, a trace of threat.  Just as important though is the propriety of the action of a senior defence official in a functioning democracy, even suggesting to an editor what should and should not be included in her newspaper.  Such an act in a functioning democracy would have caused such a stink that the official would…

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Lament for a nation: Sri Lanka’s epitaph

Bob Rae, former Premier of Ontario, Canada, submitted this article to Groundviews. It was first published in the Globe and Mail on 4th April 2007. To honour the memory of Kethesh Loganathan and others assassinated before him, we can’t allow the world’s indifference to continue Kethesh Loganathan was my friend. The last meeting I had with him was a memorable one: He provided me with information about a colleague whose life was at risk, he believed. Thanks to his intervention, his friend was able to take refuge away from Sri Lanka. I knew Kethesh as an intense man, a thoughtful man ready to speak ironically of his Marxist path, of the twists and turns of his life. A proud Tamil, he believed in the recognition of his people, in the need to end the profound discrimination that had so deeply affected the lives of Sri Lankan Tamils. But he was also a pragmatist who, in accepting his last job as…

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අභිෙයා්ග හමුෙවි ඉදිරියට යන ශුි ලංකා කුිකටි

වර්ෂ1996ෙය්දි ඔස්ෙටුිලියාවට එෙරහිව ශුි ලංකාව ලද ෙලා්ක කුසලාන ජයගුහණය දැන් දැන් අපෙග් මතකය අඑත් කරනවා ෙනාඅනුමානයි.ෙමි දිනවල බටහිර ඉන්දිය ෙකාෙදවි දුපත්හි පැවැත්ෙවන 9 වන ෙලා්ක කුසලාන තරගාවලිෙය් අර්ධ අවසන් තරගය සදහා ෙමම මස 24 ෙවනිදා ශුි ලංකාව සහභාගිවන තරගය පැවැත්ෙවන ෙහයිනි. තත්වය ෙමෙස් තිබියදි සුපුරැදු පරිදි ශුිලංකානු කුිකටි කණ්ඩායමට එෙරහිව ෙකරිෙගන යන උද්ෙඝා්ෂණයන් සහ මඩ පුහාරයන් අාරමිභවි තුිබිම අප කවිරැත් පුදුමයට පත් ෙනාවන බව මාෙග් අදහසයි.1995 වර්ෂෙය්දි ඔස්ෙටුිලියාෙවිදි පැවැත්වු ෙබන්සන් ෙහජස් තරගාවලිෙය්දි ඔස්ෙටුිලියානු විනිසුරැ ඩැරල් ෙහයාර් විසින් මුත්තයියා මුරලිදරන් පන්දුව දමා ගසන්ෙනක් බව පුකාශ කරන ලදි. අවසානෙය්දි කුිකටි කවුන්සිලය පැවැත්වු පරික්ෂණයකින්්් පසුව මුරලිදරන් නිෙදාස්කරන ලදි.1999 වර්ෂෙය්දි එංගලන්තය ෙටස්ටි තරගයකින් පරාජය කිරිෙමන්පසුව එංගලන්ත පුවත් පත් වලට සහ කුිකටි ෙලා්ලින්ට පින්සිදු වන්නට ශුි ලංකානු කණ්ඩායමට එංගලන්තය සමග ෙටස්ටි තරගාවලියක් සදහා පුථම වරට ෙටස්ටි තරග 03 ක් ලබාදිමට එංගලන්ත කුිකටි පරිපාලනයට සිදුවිය.ෙමි අකාරයට ශුි ලංකානු කුිකටි කණ්ඩායමට එෙරහිව ෙගන ගිය කුමනිතුණයන්ෙගන් සුලු පුමාණයක් පමණි.නමුති ෙවනදාට වඩා ෙමම ගැටලුව ෙවනස් අාකාරයකට ඉදිරියට ෙගනවිත් ශුි ලංකානු කුිඩකයින්ෙග් මානසිකත්වය බිදදැමිමට ගනු ලැබු උත්සහයන් පිළිබද නවතම විස්තරයන්…

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  • 23 Apr, 2007
  • 0 Comment
  • Advocacy,
    Colombo,
    Peace and Conflict

The Peace Confidence Index Survey: What the people think about peace, war and talks

An article sent to Groundviews by Rajan Philips, that is slightly revised from an earlier version published in the media in Sri Lanka recently. Newspaper reports have given prominence to the latest Peace Confidence Index (PCI) survey carried out in February 2007, by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA). The media reports have highlighted that 59% of Sinhalese agree with the proposition that “the government should expand its military action including all out war in order to weaken the LTTE.” There is also an apparent weakening of support among the Sinhalese for the ‘peace process’ evidenced by the drop in support for it from 57% in the PCI survey of November 2006 to 46% in the February survey. During the same interval, Sinhalese support for the alternative to the peace process – government defeating the LTTE – went up from 26% to 35%. At first cut it would seem obvious to conclude that the attitude among the Sinhalese is hardening…

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Meditation for a divided nation

While meditation may appear to be irrelevant in times of political and social unrest, there are some who believe that this ancient practice could contribute towards transforming violent conflicts, such as the one that has been burdening the people of Sri Lanka for decades. By changing the individual consciousness, those who participate in meditative exercises are able to look at a situation in a different light, from multiple perspectives and with increased empathy and tolerance, and it is believed that the collective consciousness of an entire community or nation can also be transformed in this way. Meditation has long been practiced in Sri Lanka by those in pursuit of physical, mental and spiritual health and has always been central to Buddhist teachings as a means of developing mindfulness, tranquility and inner peace. In the Christian tradition, it is considered a form of prayer or a contemplation of the divine mysteries. In Hinduism the practice of yoga, which incorporates aspects of…

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  • 18 Apr, 2007
  • 2 Comments
  • Peace and Conflict

Whose rules? Amnesty Campaign

The AI campaign ‘Play by the Rules’ is a trailblazer (http://web.amnesty.org/pages/lka-020407-petition-eng), in marketing terms AI must be exultant with the publicity that it has received globally and especially in Sri Lanka. For a campaign of this nature nothing is negative publicity and so counter pressure in the form of agitated Sri Lankan government officials and Ministers referring to this campaign and calling it blasphemous, Southern based political groups taking to the roads and disquietened Sinhala diaspora must only add to the number of balls signed or the hits on the AI website. According to AI the campaign ‘Play by the Rules!’ is to remind stakeholders in Sri Lanka that, All parties involved in the escalating armed conflict in Sri Lanka need to ‘Play by the Rules!’ now to prevent the human rights crisis that is emerging in the country claiming more lives. Amnesty International (AI) calls on the Sri Lankan government, LTTE, Karuna faction and other armed groups to respect…

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Sri Lanka’s constitutional gulag

“The SLFP, and the millions who support it, will never be a party to robbing the people of Sri Lanka of their sovereignty.” Lakshman Kadirgamar, 4 November 2003 It is only through a willing suspension of disbelief that one expects anything genuinely progressive from the proposals the SLFP will submit to the APRC in early May. Sri Lanka’s dilly-dally with all manner of constitutional proposals aimed at a just and equitable resolution of Sri Lanka’s ethnic question has to date, and perhaps unsurprisingly given the actors involved in such efforts, failed to put an end to the continuing misery that’s the result of violent conflict. However, in spite of the history of failed attempts, or because of it, we need to seriously consider these new proposals. They are, after all, the first expression of a concrete set of constitutional ideas and principles of this government, and of the first of the SLFP since the response to the LTTE’s Interim Self-Governing…

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Groundviews system upgrade: Snap Shots

The website preview feature on Groundviews, powered by Snap Shots, is now enhanced with a bigger preview screen. Hovering on a link such as this results in a pop-up window with a picture of the webpage the link points to. If you find this feature particularly annoying, you can easily turn off the feature by clicking on the Disable option on the upper-right hand corner of the pop-up. You can also customise the size, the delay before the pop-up appears and access other features by clicking on Options, also located on the upper-right hand corner of the pop-up window. Repost This Article

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On “traitors” and federalism: Beyond the hypocrisy, towards collaboration

Bear with me and read the following carefully: “The problems of the Tamil community are best known to the Tamils than any others. Any solution to our problems put forward by us should be taken into consideration by the other two communities – the Muslims and the Sinhalese. Furthermore the Tamils problems must have a Tamil solution and not a Sinhalese imposed solution. Even veteran politician Annan (eldest brother) V. Anandasangaree, leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front and senior cabinet Minister Douglas Devananda , leader of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party, too has said time and again that they are for an Indian model. It must be pointed out that today a federated unitary form with secularism enforced vigorously keeps India united, where as a theocratic unitary sectarian government, focusing on majoritarian numerical supremacy in Sri Lanka, has eroded the unity and pushed the country towards the brink of disintegration, dissension and division. It is unfortunate that a section…

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  • 11 Apr, 2007
  • 5 Comments
  • Peace and Conflict

Self Colonising …

Recently, I noticed an Q&A style article titled “India Is Colonising Itself” by Arundhati Roy and Shoma Chaudhuri. I thought the first Q and A was very interesting, and perhaps parts of it are applicable to Sri Lanka. So, I have cut and pasted it below, and look forward to any comments about “we’ve begun to eat our own limbs”, or anything else that might grab you! There is an atmosphere of growing violence across the country. How do you read the signs? Do you think it will grow more in the days to come? What are its causes? In what context should all this be read? You don’t have to be a genius to read the signs. We have a growing middle class, being reared on a diet of radical consumerism and aggressive greed. Unlike industrializing western countries which had colonies from which to plunder resources and generate slave labour to feed this process, we have to colonize ourselves,…

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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