Archive for January, 2009

Let us make the bombers accountable to us!

As I write more than 250,000 civilians are trapped in jungle near Mullaitivu. They have little food, water and medicine. They are being injured and killed. They need help. Please speak to your representatives, write letters to your editors, insist that their plight be reviewed by the UN Security Council. Harming innocents is not a matter of internal security or civil war to be left to the warring parties in the Sri Lankan conflict. We must not be quiet. Let us make a lot of noise. Let us make the bombers accountable to us. Let us try to save a few lives. Repost This Article

Continue reading »

Are We Back on Square One?

The proximate cause that led me to write this article was a question asked by a friend of mine who earn his daily income by selling sundry items in Kandy pavement. He is known to me for almost 40 years as we were members of the same political party in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been always a careful observer of events that have been taking place in national and international political arena. His question reads like this: “Comrade, it seems that the LTTE will be definitely defeated in the military front soon. Since it has been a military-politico organization, I think it would weaken or even disappear with the military defeat. So don’t you think Sri Lanka’s situation in February 2009 would be similar to its situation in February 2002?” The question puzzled me, so my immediate response was: “what do you mean?” He explained: “In February 2002, you people described the Sri Lankan situation as ‘no war,…

Continue reading »

MULLAITIVU: CLOSING TIME

The trick is to grasp the main needs of the present while being able to see into the future, with its problems and prospects, while being aware that the choices we make today, in the here and now, will determine the shape of tomorrow. First things first: the Tigers have been almost completely overthrown and almost totally defeated, but not yet and not quite. The task is to stay focused and finish the job, resisting all external pressures from whichever quarter however exalted or powerful. If the foot-soldiers of an army survive but not its General staff, it is almost impossible for it to continue to fight, but as long as a leader and his General staff survive, they can raise an army. Antonio Gramsci reminded us of this, with Napoleon Bonaparte as the classic example. Velupillai Prabhakaran and his commanders are still alive, and as long as they remain so, they pose a deadly threat to the Sri Lankan…

Continue reading »

Attacks on the Media, Military Successes and Political Settlement: The Stuff on Our Plates

End of January 2009. The political situation in Sri Lanka has seen considerable developments through 2008 and especially during the month of January 2009. The main focus today is the war against terrorism, also described as a ‘humanitarian’ mission, intended at defeating the LTTE and it military might. On the management of the military forces and elaboration of military strategy, the Sri Lankan government has achieved considerable feats, and has provided the political and military leadership required to the execution of successful military operations. As Austin Fernando, the former Defence Secretary under the Wickramasinghe government of 2001, notes in his recently published book (My Belly is White: Reminisences of a Peacetime Secretary of Defence. Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2008), the mandate President Rajapakse received in December 2005 implied the popular will for a different, i.e. military strategy in dealing with the ethnic conflict. After three years in office, it is clear that the Rajapakse government has promptly executed this task….

Continue reading »

Remote Controllers a threat to National Security

New meters will monitor ‘patriotic TV watching’ by citizens By Banyan News Reporters Colombo, 15 January 2009: The television remote controller poses a serious threat to the country’s national security, the government has determined. A new law will soon be introduced to register and regulate this electronic item. The ubiquitous gadget helps unpatriotic persons to change the channel when matters of national importance are being broadcast on state TV channels. This, in turn, deprives the government its rightful opportunity to address and inform all its citizens, security advisors have pointed out. There is also the possibility that terrorists or their sympathisers could use remote controller as a ‘weapon of mass distraction’, to keep citizens uninformed or misinformed about the government’s resounding military victories in the North. “As a responsible government firmly believing in our right to inform the people, we must ensure that every citizen is reached. At this turning point in our history, we cannot allow subversive technologies to…

Continue reading »

To Win the War and Lose the Peace: Beyond Sri Lanka’s ‘War on Terror’

It looks like one of the more winnable conflicts in an age of the global ‘war on terror’. The Sri Lankan government appears to be on the brink of announcing victory in its drawn-out battle against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The armed separatist group, listed as one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups, has fought successive Sri Lankan governments for over a quarter of a century in the guise of liberating the island’s Tamil community from a state that has increasingly marginalised linguistic and religious minorities. However, the question remains as to whether the victory would be pyrrhic when finally manifest, consolidated on irreparable damage to the county’s increasingly fragile democratic institutions and centuries-old multicultural, multi-religious and hybrid social fabric. Several conflicts have been assimilated to the global ‘war on terror’ in the aftermath of 9/11 and the United States-led global ‘war on terror’ that casts a long shadow in South Asia. In 2006, the conflict…

Continue reading »

Aftermath of the Victory: whither Sri Lanka?

Heartland of Eelam is fallen. LTTE is now cornered to a narrow strip of land and in near future whole bulk of 65, 610 km2 of land would be under the control of the Government of Sri Lanka. Glory of the victory would be with the Sri Lankan Army and the politicians as always would reap the harvest at the cost of the Sri Lankans. We’re practicing representative democracy. Though not futuristic as the President is, a fraction of me believes that the Independent celebrations might be held in Kilinochchi. The government has announced a rapid development plan for Kilinochchi with the hope of creating an endogenous return of the displaced civilians. Well done! Development discourse follows with a tender cry for a political solution. India nominates full implementation of the 13th amendment as the solution, GoSL seconds and re-iterates it. In 2008, we saw the liberation of the East. A huge development plan was implemented under the banner of…

Continue reading »

The Anti-Conversion Bill violates the freedom of Conscience and the freedom of expression

There is a trend to convert the triumph of the Armed Forces over the LTTE in the north into a triumphal Sinhala-Buddhist ultra nationalism. Their ideology is that the country belongs only to the Sinhala Buddhists and that the other communities be they of different ethnicity or religion must live on the sufferance of the Sinhala Buddhists. It is also part of the ideology that no Buddhist should embrace any other religion and therefore the Christians who seek to make converts of Buddhists should be punished severely, never mind if the convert voluntarily and genuinely accepts the Christian religion and not out of any inducement -material or otherwise offered by anybody who preaches to him. The politicians and civil society groups that are protesting against the killing of journalists and the violation of media freedom must oppose this so-called Anti-Conversion Bill since what is involved is the freedom of expression in preaching different religious  doctrines and it removes the freedom…

Continue reading »
  • 23 Jan, 2009
  • 4 Comments
  • Colombo

The Breadwinner or the Nurturing Mother

This article is dedicated to our late mother “Chandra Perera-Gunaratne” who balanced between motherhood and her profession as a Montessori teacher and entrepreneur – for her dedication to us, her courage and her generosity Sri Lanka boasts about the foreign exchange income earned through the labour of our women overseas.  Yet, we do not place much importance to the social cost of this.   Sri Lanka will face a major epidemic of social misfits into the future as so many children are growing up in a motherless home.    Intuitively, we all know the crucial role a mother plays in a home.  Now, science is proving this further. Our limbic brain requires social interaction to grow healthy.  It has been proven over and over again that a baby will not survive without the mother’s or another permanent care giver’s loving touch and care.  There is a process of limbic nourishment and regulation that happens with the baby through proximity to the mother. …

Continue reading »

To The Courts, In Remorse

Drop all charges against Tissanaiyagam. his glaucoma needs treatment and his wife will be grateful, …and the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps will feel less inclined to speak at public acts of grievance. I agree we must not interfere with funerals. leaves a bitter taste on the BBC’s tongue. Inevitably advisors will counsel banning that Commonwealth voice. Yet, then we must cope with reporters in disguise, especially these pesky bloggers who feel empowered to write what they see and hear taste and touch as if witness can make bread out of flour or yams sprout in a mineswept Vanni. And let me not forget the political analysts who worry in public that a failed state will be our cup of tea. I trust you will still drink our fabled single leaf beverage and visit our white sand, black sand, red sand, blue sand beaches. Repost This Article

Continue reading »

The future of the LTTE in Sri Lanka: Kumudini Samuel

Prominent civil society activist Kumudini Samuel shares her views on the future of the LTTE in Sri Lanka. Kumudini Samuel is the founder of the Women’s and Media Collective and a member of the Gender Sub Committee established during negotiations with the LTTE under the ceasefire agreement (CFA). For more short videos that look at the future of the LTTE in English, Sinhala and Tamil, click on Vikalpa’s The future of the LTTE: What next? playlist. Repost This Article

Continue reading »
  • 21 Jan, 2009
  • 6 Comments
  • Peace and Conflict

The future of the LTTE in Sri Lanka: Shanthi Sachithanandan

Prominent Tamil civil society activist Shanthi Sachithanandan shares her views on the future of the LTTE in Sri Lanka. For more short videos that look at the future of the LTTE in English, Sinhala and Tamil, click on Vikalpa’s The future of the LTTE: What next? playlist. Repost This Article

Continue reading »

From the ‘sole representative’ to the ‘sole alternative’: Justice for, and within the Tamil Community

With the position of spokesperson for, and sole representative of the Tamil community set to become vacant upon the projected defeat of the LTTE, one would hope that space would be created for the emergence of democratic, plural and dissenting Tamil voices within the community and the polity at large. However, the vacuum is most likely to be filled by Tamil politico-armed groups battling each other to be the ‘sole alternative’ to the LTTE and gain the favoured position of the ‘authentic’ Tamil voice that is accepted and supported by the government. The escalation of internecine violence in the Eastern Province is illustrative of the failure of non-LTTE Tamil leadership and political groups to provide a viable alternative to the Tamil people. Instead, Tamil politico-armed groups are awaiting the demise of the sole representative to claim the mantle of sole alternative (to the LTTE), the result of which would be the continued suppression of plural and dissenting Tamil opinion. The…

Continue reading »

Media watch: To write or not to write the truth

I once asked the following question, not from anyone in particular of course: Why don’t pens, pencils and paper go on strike decrying journalists who will not write the truth?” I might have added the new tech instruments employed by writers such as word processors, printers, diskettes, thumb-drives etc., but that would not have added much to the issue. Truth of course is a strange creature for its authenticity is not easily tested not least of all because the instruments of evaluation are by definition subjective. And so each of us will defend the truths we believe in, subject to the caveat that their authenticity is informed by perception. As such my original question seems rather stupid. On the other hand, even within the universe of subjectivity, I believe we can talk of truth. Consider a great work of art, say, an epoch-defining painting or architectural masterpiece. Is it only because it is talked about that we are amazed by…

Continue reading »

Thoughts on violence against and the future of independent media in Sri Lanka by Dinidu de Alwis

Dinidu de Alwis, a well known and well read blogger and journalist in Sri Lanka shares some thoughts on the future of independent media in Sri Lanka and the significant challenges it faces today. For more videos in Sinhala and English, click on the Violence against and the future of independent media in Sri Lanka playlist on the Vikalpa YouTube video channel. Repost This Article

Continue reading »
Page 1 of 3123

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!"

cezarneaga.eu