Registering for another pogrom in Sri Lanka?
By a frustrated thrice registered Tamil citizen living in Colombo
This is about www.citizens.lk.
I am concerned as I am sure you are about the racial profiling (in addition to a whole load of things that are problematic about this registration drive) this regime seeks to do through the registration process.
We should consider a campaign to ask people to ignore this registration drive.
An alternative is to ask people to register all Sinhala speaking people as ‘Tamils’ since there is no criteria as to how you decide on how someone belongs to a particular ethnicity and not the other.
I confess that i am typing this email wondering whether this will be accessible by someone who wont like its contents. Committing to a campaign asking people not to register or to distort it is without saying will put those involved in danger.
So what are we to do? Let this go by as well?
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three things.
1/
is this compulsory? legally speaking so far it seems not to be
2/
is it any different from other countries?
no i am not refering to authoritarian ones but "democracies"
i know usa does not have something similar ( though social security numbers and records are being used to "trace people", and in addition they have finger print databases, there are proposals to create dna database). what about europe? japan?
singapore does have something similar to this i think but then it is a nanny state.
israel does have one.
(btw i am not saying i approve of these whether here or in other place, but perspective and proportion is necessary )
3/
how practicable do you think this will be .
i expect this to fall apart due to bureaucratic incompetence and other practical difficulties before going far.
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before going into hysterical speculations as in the main post, shouldn't you find out and think about these things. at least to have a meaningful debate
Mr. Sittingnut,
1. it will be compulsary but at the discretion of the government (i am not kidding)
2. Practical in the sense as to how it will be used? i am not sure unless you have access to the government..
3. i have registered more than five times now. I havent, at these registration places, seen any organised way of collecting information. why do they do it? to scare the tamil population here in colombo? Gotta claimed the other day according to a lakbima news report that they were able to bust an LTTE link because of this. I wonder how? Did the LTTE willingly come and register?
what reason do you give for a tamil citizen not to be hysterical about this and remain calm Mr Sittingnut?
I carry this white paper that they have us as registration which i call a visa to stay in colombo. it has an expiry date. reason of stay etc. Why should we take this burden Mr Sittingnut?
Most who have an issue with this registration process must
a. Not be muslims
b. Must have a false sense of security since the recent drop in suicide bombs.
Muslims regardless of which country they belong to when on a flight get eye balled, hassled at security checks…yes its called racial profiling because the blokes trying to hijack planes in the name of allah are muslims.
When 100% of all suicide bombers belong to the Tamil race and the LTTE is all Tamil. Of course it is necessary to know if fleeing Tigers have taken refuge amongst your neighbours.
Dealing with terrorism cannot be compared to "big brother" watching for no reason…
yes, it does seem quite a dangerous registration for tamil citizens, sinhalese or muslim citizens who are known to be outspoken about the govt and its 'efforts'. To give away your address and your ethnicity seem to be along the lines of being sitting ducks. The electoral lists of JR's time seem to be making a come back. If only we had a strong opposition in this country that can rally the masses against this unnecessary decisions by the govt. Wishful thinking
Perhaps the Tamil Citizen will be glad his/her Colombo Visa can now be extended online. The state offers such valuable services. We should be glad.
This is so totally "Big brother is watching". George Orwell's 1984 or nothing. I dont belong to the Tamil community but am totally hybrid. What do I say my ethnicity is? This is unbelievable. I think its a great idea for us to enter distorted ethnic labels in this website.
Punitham
Most of those who ran to the Northeast after each pogrom returned to the South as they found that there was hardly any government investment for economic development .
JR's eletoral list +++.
Early twentieth century with the growth of Colombo as commercial centre Tamils were slowly moving to Colombo. 50s/60s/70s/early80s riots slowly sent them back to Northeast. Military occupation of Northeast and military assaults of late80s/90s sent them back slowly to the South. Now in this regime …..
it is a joke
http://www.infosl.com/doyouknow/?p=86
mr anonymous
thank you for helping me make my point about irrational hysteria on display about this here.
Oh Mr Sittingnut that's all you could try for a reply? Bravo!! How did you guess that the anonymous was a Mr? Like many of the assumptions that you make? Good.
… anonymous:
while i would be happy engage in a rational debate on correct 'polite" form of address to anonymous commenters that would be rather off topic here. anyway my sincere apologies for calling you 'mr'.
(my earlier reply to you was written before your reply became visible.)
if you or anyone else have anything rational to say or even point any irrational assumptions i make relevant to the topic, i would be happy to read them
mr anonymous
just to add to my earlier reply to your comment.
i am well aware that impassioned exaggerations do play a part in politics, and is even justified when some of that emotion is authentic(though it is a hard business to judge authenticity of emotion of others) but given the consequences of such appeals in history ,and the double headed nature of emotions, do you really want to go there ?
isn't it better to stick to reason and facts? and expect others to do so?
No Problem. All of you who protest have at one time or the other given your personal data to many web sites, if you are onliner, the expats have given their's to authorities in their adopted lands. All of them are on online data bases. So what are you protesting at. This is an attempt to streamline the data on a computer database. Only those shady characters need to be worried as it will not be easy anymore to give the slip to the police!