Rohan Edrisinha, Senior Lecturer of the University of Colombo and the Head of the Legal Unit CPA, talks in detail about and through three key points, critiques the flaccid proposals submitted recently to the President by the APRC. Also read APRC: The Year of the Rat has begun. Repost This Article
Continue reading »Anudhradapura District, mid October 2007 The huge, busy conurbation of Anudharapura—once a sacred city—has become the major transit centre for military forces en route to and from the current war zones. The ancient archeologically important ruins for which Anudharapura is famous are dwarfed by the sprawling modern developments. An informal economy has grown up in which small traders sell the debris of militarism: single T56 bullets for 15 rupees each. Many young girls have come to the city to sell their favours to the military personnel. Guesthouses built for tourists who rarely come any more are now informal brothels. A trader approaches asking, “What do you want? Bullets? Weapons? Girls?” If you want a bullet, he takes one from his pocket. If you want a weapon, he guides you to a secret stash in this sacred city. If you want a girl, he directs you to the guesthouse. Three-wheeled taxis, Tri-shaws, fly around the city doing this business. At Madawatchiya…
Continue reading »The APRC has behaved as feared. It has delivered for the regime and not for the country. Clearly Professor Vitharana could not hold out – encomiums about his persistence notwithstanding. He obliged his president and produced the Interim Report of the APRC eighteen months after it was convened. The Majority Report and the Vitharana Report are all history – His Excellency demanded and determined and hey presto they produced a mouse, heralding in, in our inimitable way, the Chinese Year of the Rat, no doubt ! Why on earth did the APRC have to sit some sixty four times over eighteen months to recommend that less than the Thirteenth Amendment be implemented in the interim, whilst they sit or swan around the world indefinitely to produce a final report on the never, never ? Everyone who signed on to this document bears responsibility for one of the more pathetic farces that have characterised our politics in recent memory. And there…
Continue reading »Boralla Junction, Colombo – October 2007 I am waiting for a bus holding a small transparent plastic bag of fruit for my mother. As usual, the buses are sounding their horns, conductors are shouting out the stops on their route, lottery ticket sellers are offering fortunes. In the middle of Boralla Junction there is a Bo tree by a little temple from which a loudspeakers project Pirith chanting. On every corner of the busy crossroads large posters bless our three military forces – air, land and sea — faithfully pursuing their duty until the final victory. Other posters advertise the Superstar competition on Sirasa TV, modelled on American Idol, encouraging us to text in and record our votes for the candidates. Prostitutes and beggars who have worked Boralla Junction for years, older now but still plying their trades, move amongst the crowds. Suddenly, an ordinary person in civilian clothes accosts me, “Can I check your ID?” I am taken aback…
Continue reading »Deception has two extreme poles at each end of the untruth. One end is witty, subtle, astute and artistic. A magician, for example, perplexes us with pleasant surprise, tickling our innocent perception of truth as something illusive, though the deceptive role involved in the trick is taken for granted by everyone, magician and spectator alike. And, this trick, as long as it is not disproved hangs in suspension as an “untrue truth”. It is this that mesmerizes us and makes us his easy prey. The mediocre con artist occupies the other pole of deception. A bald man selling some indigenous oil as a sure remedy for falling hair fits this category. His deception works not in his own smartness but in others’ naivety. Rajapakse regime resembles the latter who has no finesse at all in his subterfuge. As there is a large section of naively vulnerable population any deception can work for some time. However, another group of people who…
Continue reading »Note: Interacting with Willie Senanayake, Lionel Bopage and other moderates in Australia I found them composing a “Handbook of Answers” to typical objections against devolution presented within the Sinhala speech community. This can be an useful exercise. But then one is facing one’s debating opponents on terrain of their choosing. I propose rather to create a different landscape. This is the product.Inevitably it overlaps with SPLIT ASUNDER. I have responded briefly to brief comments under that topic; but this new essay will hopefully spark further commentary. Note, however, that the Vitharana Committee’s proposals will perhaps overwhelm our thinking when they appear soon. ADDRESSING THE NATIONS OF SRI LANKA Michael Roberts 14 January 2008 The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka has been locked in an impasse for decades, with severe consequences of affliction and economic impoverishment across the board on all sides of the warring groups. Any effort today to work out a viable modus vivendi [as distinct from the utopian…
Continue reading »R.M.B. Senanayake Those who justify the abrogation of the CFA point to the numerous violations of the truce by the LTTE. They point out that it was a dead letter. They are right. But the CFA did not prohibit re-arming by either side and while the Government did so openly the LTTE did so covertly. Those who believe in a military solution argue rightly that Prabakaran will never agree to anything less than Eelaam or a separate state. They hope to defeat the LTTE and re-conquer the territory which they held at the time of the Ceasefire. The government has already re-conquered the East. The Government hopes to dictate a political solution which it thinks will be accepted by the Tamils. The Government hopes to vanquish the LTTE and perhaps kill or capture Prabakaran. Thos who argue against a military solution say even a military occupation of the north and east will not bring about peace but only drive the…
Continue reading »By The Titular Republic This conflict has no end. The path of injustice taken by this nation heralds war, destruction and suffering. The “blood-shattered landscape” will scream and her children shall become slaves to fear and hatred. Why? The present government hopes to destroy the LTTE by militarily; with superior numbers, weapons and strategy. Even though it may be militarily feasible to destroy the feared Tigers of Lanka in this fashion, it will not heal this broken nation. Will a person who has identified every Tamil as a possible suicide bomber, who has supported the violation of Tamils fundamental rights, who has come to believe he has nothing in common with any Tamil, who has come to believe that Sri Lanka, from Point Pedro to Dondra, is a ‘sacred, Sinhala homeland’ be ever able to accept a Tamil as a human being, a fellow citizen and a comrade-in-arms in the struggle for survival? Will the Tamil, who has been killed,…
Continue reading »Groundviews is pleased to announce the immediate availability of its latest content on mobile devices. Go to http://groundviews.mofuse.mobi/ to access our mobile site from Sri Lanka or anywhere in the world. Groundviews mobile works with Blackberry’s, the iPhone and all recent Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung and other mobile phones capable of and set up for Internet access. Our site does not require 3G or high speed connectivity and is not tied to any mobile operator or service. Repost This Article
Continue reading »On the loose since 12th May 2007, I spotted this Iranian barge banging against the Galle Fort ramparts just opposite the Fort Dew guest-house, adjacent to the Buddhist Temple, over the weekend. Clearly, the thing keeps shifting with the tide since it’s moved on from where is was spotted last year. Cerno also has a picture of it here. In a recent meeting with the President of Sri Lanka, Iran’s minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Dr.Daawood Danesh Jafarji has assured Sri Lanka of its continued support in the development of the island’s economic social and cultural activities. One wonders if the destruction of Sri Lanka’s cultural heritage by Iranian property was also discussed at these meetings. Repost This Article
Continue reading »The All Party Representative Committee (APRC) is supposed submit its report to the President on January 23. When the APRC together with the expert committee began its deliberations, many people including myself were optimistic and saw it as a ‘glimmer of hope’. However, glimmer of hope began to fade away with the submission of the SLFP proposals in response to Tissa Vitharana Report (TVR). The essence of the TRV is that Sri Lankan post-colonial state be restructured following the principles of shared and self rule so that it proposes devolution of power and the formation of the second chamber. In that sense, TRV = 2000 Draft + Senate. I personally believed that it provided a basis for discussion with Tamil nationalists, both extreme and moderate. The SLFP proposals submitted in response TRV were designed to inverse the entire power-sharing discourse that began in explicit terms in 1994. The extreme Sinhala nationalists asked Minister Tissa Vitharana to resign from the APRC…
Continue reading »By Under Dog Let me count the ways: I love the way you worked for the benefit of the nation by busting through 1.4 billion rupees of public funds in 9 months. I love the way you used 385 million rupees worth of fuel from the CPC without paying for it. I love the way you convinced the Treasury (public funds) to pay off the fuel debt on your behalf.  I love the way you drove Lankaputhra Development Bank (founded with public funds to make small loans to small businesses) into insolvency by ‘borrowing’ 500 million rupees from it. I love the way you plan to utilize synergies (steal profits away) by rationalizing routes (taking routes from) Sri Lankan airlines. I love the way you take off with bits and pieces missing from an engine: “heck, most of it is there, it’ll fly” and the “Mayday! Mayday!” that facilitates speedy entry for unscheduled stop-overs. Frankly, what’s not to love…
Continue reading »By Bhumi. Based on field trip from 10th – 14th December 2007. Introduction The East is ‘liberated’. It has been so since last June when the government requested it to be celebrated with ‘patriotic joy’. Over 300,000 civilians were displaced in the process and a majority have been ‘resettled’ since then. But a significant minority still remain in the IDP or transit camps with uncertainty hanging over their future. This report, based on short visits and a series of discussions with a number of people in the area – including some of the displaced people themselves – is to communicate some pressing issues and concerns in this process. It aims to highlight aspects of the human rights and humanitarian situation in the District with a specific focus on the internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the newly resettled villages in Vaharai and West Batticaloa. In doing so, it hopes to inform and influence concerned policy makers and practitioners to think through…
Continue reading »Opinion of Fathima, 24 and mother of one child from Karambe camp in Puttlam “I was eight year -old, when we were forced out of Jaffna. I was crying throughout the journey from Jaffna to Puttlam. We came to Puliyankulam, Vavuniya and Puttalam. It took three days for us to reach Puttlam. Initially I was in a camp along with the others. Food and immediate needs were met by various organizations. My other family members bring to my reluctant memory even now. I forgot every sweet memories of my mother town in Jaffna. I don’t know the present situation our house or the surroundings in Jaffna. The unbearable issues is that we lost our culture. I will not go back to Jaffna, because I am used to this place and people, and it’s very hard for me to go back and adjust. The Internally Displaced Persons are still called “Agathi” or refugee by several host community members. We did not…
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