Thanks for writing in and the measure of support. Perhaps this was prompted by the recent IPS story on new media in Sri Lanka, which I’ve responded to in detail here.

You say Groundviews is not citizen journalism. I believe it is.

I believe Groundviews, Vikalpa and Vikalpa Video have raised awareness on how web media in general, and blogs and short online video in particular – in English, Sinhala and Tamil – can promote ideas that critique what’s in mainstream / traditional media in Sri Lanka. The guidelines you are ignorant of that this site operate on can be found here.

I believe that by publishing articles from non-journalists, from IDPs, from relief workers, from civil society activists and creating in the case of Groundviews an award winning site for stories on war, peace and democracy in Sri Lanka, we’ve created something that simply didn’t exist before. And the increasingly numbers coming here seem to suggest that what’s written by ordinary citizens is seen as valuable by many others located in Sri Lanka and abroad.

Meepura I first heard about it years ago when I was working with Sunanda as a small newspaper struggling to make an impact against the traditional media’s stranglehold on the public imagination. Your web presence, which I take is new, is interesting in that it promotes stories from Negombo for what I believe is an audience primarily from Negombo. That’s what may be called hyper-local in citizen journalism. Our effort is different.

There’s room for more than one definition and example of citizen media in Sri Lanka. For our part, we are happy to see Groundviews, and more importantly, Vikalpa and Vikalpa Video champion and demonstrate by example how web based media can evolve into something that gives traditional media a run for their money. It’s desperately needed, given the atrocious quality of journalism we read in both Private and State media for reasons both linked to the despicable nature of the regime today and also the equally damning lack of professionalism in mainstream journalism itself.

Groundviews, VOR Radio, Vikalpa and Vikalpa Video offers perspectives in English, Sinhala, Tamil, audio and video, every day, all week. Our websites as they stand today are a vital record of thoughts that CANNOT be found in traditional journalism. For students of conflict resolution, they are a treasure trove of information. For students on critical discourse during war, they are a living experiment of how the imperfect science of moderation grapples daily with hate speech and how civility is often lost in debates on ethnic identity, religion and the causes of war.

This to me is citizen journalism – it’s real, it’s compelling, it offers no single truth, and for me, exciting to be part of a larger effort that is shaping Sri Lanka’s news and information agenda especially at a time when so much of it is so very one-sided (see here).

I wish you the best in your work and hope you’ll be able to replicate what we have done with our sites in your own footprint of influence.

Best,

Sanjana

P.S. Your website in English, by the way, hasn’t been updated in over a year and the version in Sinhala requires a proprietary font. Both of these kill interest and suggest a venture on to the web that hasn’t been thought through carefully, isn’t well designed, is without compelling content and without anyone within your newspaper with the wherewithal to take forward. This is a pity – the greatest mistake one can make on the web is to do something just because someone else is doing it without thinking about what added value, or difference, one can make.

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Is the war the only “relevant” issue for a Sri Lankan democracy? I do not think I have once come across an article outlining the governments economic strategies – do they indeed have one?

i think their priority lies in a miltary solution before cost of living and anything else…………

just imaging by about three years (next election) SL forces coming close to wanni. then everyone will vote for MR again to finish it. If he has already finished it he will win overwelmingly. so i feel that he is here for full 12 years .

UNP should be looking for sucessors for grooming.
why does anyone try to change peoples believes. majority believe war is the way forward and we should go ahead with that method.

Above is interesting.

So, tamils are for war from one side. they only want GOSL to stop war and talk to LTTE. In other words, tamils are dishonest.

All these big shoutings about human rights etc., are just for their advantage.

The answers for the options by the Sinhala voters for the above question indicate that the Rajapakse government’s position is in concordance with the majority of Sinhala voters. The war is continued because more than Two-Thirds of Sinhala voters wanted it.

Let us examine the following options that indicate the continuance of military action.
1. Conducting peace talks while having military offensive. (LTTE is not going to Talk while the Military offensive is on. As such the answer is continue the military offensive.)
o Sinhala voters – 13.1 %
2. Political negotiations After Government defeats LTTE.
o Sinhala voters – 10.0 %
3. Government defeating the LTTE
o Sinhala voters – 48.5 %
TOTAL Sinhala voters for Military action – 71.6 %

Even if one leaves out the 13.1 % who want negotiation while prosecuting the war, those who are for a military solution is 58.5 %.

Lalith Athulathmuthali told me on February 4th 1985 at 9:00pm after an independence rally, with priests from the three religions, at the Mount Lavinia Park, that UNP amending the constitution to a federal constitution would be political suicide. He understood the mind of the Sinhala voters and that of the SLFP then.

Ranil Wickremasinghe told me on May 13 (the day the Jeya Sikuru started) at 7:00 PM, in the presence of Mahinda Samarasinghe and Tyrone Fernando (Now in the Rajapakse’s fold), at his Cambridge Terrace Office, that as a political party, UNP will not do anything that will not bring them back to power or if in power put them out of power. Though UNP understood the mind of the Sinhala voters, he took the risk as the Chandrika government flaundered after the Katunayake airport and the Muhamalai debacle. He won. But paid the price when he was not able to trap the LTTE even though UNP Ministers were able to cause the defection of Karuna and his supporters.

Rajapakse government is riding high on the shoulders of 70 % or more of the Sinhala voters. He is doing their bidding. Those who want peace in Sri Lanka has to convince at least a mahority of the 70% of Sinhala voters to join the 27.5% of the Sinhala voters who want to stop the war and negotiate with the LTTE. Naturally the Tamils should convince the LTTE to stop the war and negotiate, which the LTTE, from all reports, is willing to do. Just asking Rajapakse to go against the 71.6% is asking him and his party to commit political suicide.

Which in turn also means, that if the war ends, the people have no more need for MR.

Seems to me, we’re in for a very long war, at least 12 more years ya?