Archive for May, 2009

NORMALISING THE EXCEPTION: THE STATE OF EMERGENCY IN PEACETIME

In response to a call by the Opposition and civil society to lift the state of emergency and to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in consequence of the end of the war, the Leader of the House Nimal Siripala de Silva informed Parliament last Tuesday, 26th May 2009, that the Government has no intention of doing so at present. The stated reasons are that the threat of terrorism continues, remaining LTTE cadres in hiding need to be weeded out, and investigations regarding those already in detention are incomplete. This is a predictable and even unsurprising response from the government, because as students of states of emergency will know, the present government is acting in broadly comparable terms with both its predecessors as well as many other governments elsewhere. This is due to what I have described elsewhere as the ‘normalisation of the exception’. Implicit in the central tension between order and democracy which pervades the constitutional and legal…

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An After Thought by an Inside Outsider

After a war is won, there is always the after thought. Leaders from conflict parties, either dead or living, will be portrayed either as martyrs, heroes, traitors, terrorists….the list is endless. Which ever side one takes on the debate of romanticising the vanquished or demonising him, it is always interesting to see what the other party has to say. Have been observing the way in which people reacted in the post-war (can we say that yet?) context. Nationalistic spirit knew no bounds. Even the ardent opponents of the government praised its military campaign and the subsequent victory of annihilating the LTTE. The President would have been in a mental state, where ANY world leader would aspire to be in. Enviable position.  It would have been the proudest moment for the Commanders of the forces. The least that the soldiers who fought and found the dead body of VP could do was to fire in the air. The mirth; The victory…

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Holding Out For a Hero

Well it’s not exactly a hero.  What we are really holding out for is a statesman – but that wouldn’t have made a catchy title.  Yet it is a statesman that is needed in Sri Lanka at this juncture in its history.   Having finally made it over the daunting hurdle of terrorism, which had us mired in a mud heap for so many decades, Sri Lanka is now emerging, scarred but optimistic, out of the wasteland of war.  As flags fly in a uniting show of joy – a vast majority of people look forward with hope to a new dawn – a new country and another chance to catch up with the economic success of the nations around us. To reach this destination we need to step on the right road – for there are many roads leading in diverse directions and it is easy to get lost once again.   To find the right path and keep us on…

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THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY, JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY IN SRI LANKA

This year marks the twentieth death anniversary of Rajini Thiranagama, doctor, lecturer, feminist and human rights defender, and the first death anniversary of human rights lawyer and political activist Maheshwari Velauthan. The former was shot dead by the LTTE as she cycled home to her children after presiding over an Anatomy examination, the latter shot dead by the LTTE as she cared for her sick mother. They were among thousands of Tamils killed by the LTTE simply because they did not agree with it. For Tamil progressives like them, the defeat of the LTTE mitigates one source of terror. The LTTE’s claim to be the sole representative of Sri Lanka’s Tamils could be sustained only by the physical liquidation of all those who disagreed with, criticised, or simply posed a challenge to its leadership, even from within the organisation. This meant that all Tamils with a different vision of the struggle for equality, justice and democracy had to choose between…

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Monster

The degree of denial of Prabhakaran’s death within the expatriate Tamil consciousness is the best evidence of the pathology of Tamil ultra-nationalism. Rohana Wijeweera’s followers were fanatics, but when their leader was gone, they did not go into mass denial. The hardcore elements of the Tamil Diaspora really have to get their heads around it: Elvis has left the building. The Sun God has set, and his son won’t be rising either. The Tigers were among the best known brands in the terrorist universe and by defeating them so completely and utterly Sri Lanka and its armed forces have made a contribution to regional and global security and stability. They have made an example of the Tigers and thus made the world a safer place. Precious little thanks we have got for it. In the movie Lethal Weapon, when the villains take his partner’s family hostage and he plans to rescue them, Mel Gibson (playing Martin Riggs) tells Danny Glover…

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India, Sri Lanka and the Minority Question

Spontaneous street parties broke out, fireworks crackled in the air and strangers offered flowers to  soldiers to celebrate the news in Colombo – Asia’s Idi Amin was no more! One of the Indian subcontinent’s longest wars was at an end. The day before, street parties in New Delhi had celebrated the victory of the Congress Party in the elections that marked the maturing of Indian democracy and the fact that the Tamil Nadu electorate had a sophisticated view of the situation in Sri Lanka. It is, hence, to be hoped that India, the regional superpower, will play an effective role to ensure peace with justice for the minorities in Sri Lanka. The victory of the Congress Party was a victory for the whole of India and marks the deepening and strengthening of the roots of democracy as well as dynastic politics. Above all, the victory of the Congress Party was a vote for communal harmony and peaceful co-existence among the…

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The Sinhala conquest of the Tamil nation

[Editors note: The Poverty of Michael Roberts’ Enlightened Humanitarianism by Martin White, read over 900 times to date, elicited a number of responses among which were those of Nicolai. It is Nicolai’s last response that Martin White takes up at length here.) Sorry for my delay, Nicolai. Although events have moved on dramatically in the past few days, your questions, raised in a commendably honest spirit, are relevant and deserve an answer. Please also believe me that I speak respectfully to you even when I am being blunt. But permit me first, if you will, to set the scene. Briefly surveying the Vanni landscape, we find that the ‘outcome’ that Prof. Michael Roberts and others wished for – and in fact urged us all to wish for – has now become a grisly reality. The LTTE, once considered invincible, lies in tatters, its leadership obliterated by Sri Lanka’s victorious Sinhalese troops. Now that the guns are mercifully silent, the northern...

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Big Game

A group of men are standing in an outdoor location. They are grinning and laughing and are triumphant but most importantly of all, they exude an air of victory. The camera pans out to reveal four or so neatly arranged bodies on the grass in front of them. The men pass a dog tag amongst themselves, they finger it, look closely at it and ask an unseen photographer to take photographs. There is an air of jubilation. I have seen this sort of picture before. Old photographs of colonial masters in Asia and Africa holding rifles aloft, an air of triumph and victory on their faces, their trophies displayed before them. Often there are two native bearers, flanking the masters, with appropriate expressions of blankness. The photographs were a documentation of a momentous occasion for the men. The trophies of big game – Lions, tigers, leopards, elephants, rhinos etc. On May 19th 2009, the picture on television was also of…

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What are we celebrating? Questions to ponder

On the 19th of May 2009, the Sri Lankan president announced that the 27 year old civil war was finally over, that the LTTE as a military entity ceases to exist. This sparked feverish celebrations all over Sri Lanka last seen when Arjuna Ranatunage scored the winning run against Australia to win the World Cup in 96. The defeat of LTTE, the world’s 2nd most dangerous terrorist organisation, (which is well funded by the Tamil Diasporas) is by no means a simple task and should make any Sri Lankan extremely proud. However, what are we celebrating? Defeating an entity we forced into existence? Are the reasons that forced a young Prabhakaran to assassinate the Mayor of Jaffna resolved? Is Sri Lanka truly united towards peace and coexistence? Or have we ended up polarising the moderates? But most importantly, is to right to celebrate when hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians are held in internment camps living on less than the…

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Can we End this Cycle of Hatred?

I am amazed at the mobilization of young people from the Tamil Diaspora around the world to protest against the Sri Lankan government’s purported human rights violations. When often the younger generation of immigrants forgets the old country to a future in the new one, it is incredibly positive that the Diaspora feels so passionate about this difficult conflict on behalf of their community. Maybe once the conflict is over, they will come back to Sri Lanka to rebuild the country together. However, there is long way to go for reconciliation between the two communities as so much hatred has manifested, especially amongst the Diaspora overseas. We have all been affected by this ruthless conflict. I had close relatives and friends lost to LTTE attacks and bombs. Yet, I differentiate the LTTE from Tamil people. In my daily life in Sri Lanka, we work, play sports and socialize together. I am sad this is not the case with the international…

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  • 20 May, 2009
  • 22 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Peace and Conflict,
    Politics and Governance

Why I was disappointed by the Sri Lankan President’s speech heralding the end to war

At the outset let me say this. I am neither moved to tears of joy that would prompt me to fly a flag and light fire crackers nor tears of absolute sorrow that the war has ended and that the LTTE has been defeated. I am just relieved that “IT’ is over, all too aware of the cost the entire war, including the last three years, has had on thousands of people all over the island who have killed, abducted, lost loved ones, displaced and suffered in so many ways. But I am also apprehensive knowing that we are poised at a critical moment. The decisions the Government makes now (and in the days and weeks) to come will have a decisive impact on the trajectory of the underlying conflict. And that’s why I listened expectantly to the President’s speech and read the English translation afterwards. We all could guess what the President would say. We all knew that he…

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The end of one man and the legacy of another: We cannot glorify death

Yesterday we were given a body whose death left me strangely numb. While it was a man whose brutality I condemned, it was not a death that I could celebrate. It was not only that the event came to us bearing the stench of fresh blood from the camps and battlefields of the Vanni – but it was also all the talk that Prabaharan got what was ‘due’ and that this was ‘poetic justice’ for someone who lived by the sword to die by the sword. Rather, the enormity of what Prabaharan had robbed us of is not susceptible to easy equations. Even in the last months there have been thousands killed through Prabaharan’s death dance with Rajapakse. Moreover, the people that Prabaharan had killed – Neelan, Kathesh, Rajani, and thousands of other less famous – were too big for him. They were too big to be captured in some clichéd ode to poetic justice their own vision of justice…

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End of the LTTE and future of the Tamil Struggle

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which claimed to be the sole representatives of Tamil people, one of the most feared and considered as one of the most ruthless terrorist organizations in the world is vanquished. LTTE guerillas who once considered them in an equal footing with the SLA are silenced with their first and second rung leaders all killed. One of the bloodiest civil wars ended with all the due recognition given to the political will and determination to engage devoid of dithering in the face of the pressure of the IC and courage of Sri Lankan armed forces. People are in a jubilant mood relieved to have got rid of fear and destruction of war. That is one side of the story. IC and all the vested parties have their eyes wide open over the issue of the massive humanitarian catastrophe and on the way how the GoSL is going to handle RRR stages. Apart from that,…

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Interview with a leading Buddhist priest on whether the LTTE is really finished and the war over in Sri Lanka

Vikalpa Video asked Ven. Prof. Bellanvila Vimalarathana Thero for his opinion on whether the LTTE was really finished and the war over in Sri Lanka. Ven. Prof. Bellanvila Vimalarathana Thero is the Chief Priest of the Bellanwila Rajamaha Viharaya. This interview was recorded one week ago, before the dramatic events over the past few days. An English transcript of the short interview is provided below for those who can’t understand Sinhala to interrogate the Thero’s opinion on the conduct of war and plans for development and humanitarian assistance to the Vanni, which mirrors that of the Buddhist clergy writ large in Sri Lanka. Transcript in English The important issue is not whether the LTTE is finished or not. In our country, in our land, up until now there was a terrorist group that held on to a tract of land as theirs. To free this land of the terrorists was the prime goal of the government’s humanitarian operations. The terrorists…

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Live micro-blogging of President’s speech in Parliament today

For live updates / tweets of the President’s speech in Parliament, click here or follow #srilanka on Twitter.

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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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