Archive for December, 2009

A brief response to a charge of mercenary intellectualism

[Editors note: This is a response by Dayan Jayatilleke to a recently published article by Prof. Peter Schalk of Uppsala University, Sweden, who identified four western educated individuals hired by the Government of Sri Lanka to defend Colombo's decisions and criticisms from the West, labelling them "mercenary intellectuals". In the spirit of engagement, Groundviews invited two of the four mentioned in the article, no strangers to regular readers of this site, to respond. One politely declined. Prof.  Schalk's article on Tamilnet is here. If you are in Sri Lanka, where Tamilnet continues to be blocked by all ISPs, click on the proxy here to read the article.] Prof Schalk should spend his time analysing how the armed movement and the leadership he thought were militarily so superlative as to be undefeatable by the Sri Lankan state’s armed forces, were decimated earlier this year. When we last met at breakfast at the faculty club of Georgetown University in late 2005 I had just told…

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Who’s Afraid of Amateur Radio? Tsunami’s heroic technology has few backers in Sri Lanka

When all else fails, shortwave persists...

Five years ago, in the immediate aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, amateur radio helped revive emergency communications with some of the worst affected locations. The decades old practice was hailed as the ‘low tech’ miracle that literally helped save lives. Where electricity and telephone services — both fixed and mobile — had been knocked down, amateur radio enthusiasts (or ‘radio hams’) restored the first communication links. They were at the forefront of relief efforts, for example, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India, and in Hambantota in southern Sri Lanka. Within hours of the tsunami, a short wave radio link was established between the disaster management operation at the Prime Minister’s office in the capital Colombo and government offices in the stricken south. “We went in because the District Secretaries office only had a satellite phone and communications was difficult,” recalled Victor Goonetilleke, then President of the Radio Society of Sri Lanka (RSSL). The service was discontinued when…

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  • 30 Dec, 2009
  • 16 Comments
  • Elections,
    Jaffna,
    Politics and Governance,
    Post-War

Exploring the Myth that the Tamil vote will be the decider at the Presidential Elections

Aachcharya writing from Jaffna Two Tamil Dailies Thinakkural and Uthayan (Jaffna) carried yesterday a headline report of retired Supreme Court Justice C.V. Wigneswaran’s opinion on whom the Tamils should vote for at Presidential elections. (Justice C. V Wigneswaran is a highly respected member of the Tamil intelligentsia and while on the Supreme Court was known to be extremely independent and forthright in his views. He was named by TNA as their nominee for membership in the Constitutional Council) Though the report is filed in a manner as if though the newspapers contacted Justice Wigneswaran to get his response regarding rumours that some sections of the diaspora had contacted him about contesting at the presidential elections, the two reports are verbatim similar which probably means that Justice Wigneswaran himself wrote and sent the interview to be published to both these newspapers, on his own volition or possibly responding to a request from the TNA leadership. In the interview he has said…

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Between a Horek and a Mule

Over 6 decades of independence and universal adult franchise and SL has reached probably the lowest points of its political life. Listening, reading and drawing inferences from what’s coming out and not coming out of the 2 main camps in the presidential foray; I cannot help but come to the conclusion that the people of SL has the unenviable choice of electing either the biggest swindler in the country’s history or the most decorated military dunderhead in the country. So far, the sitting president has made the earth shattering declaration that he will not accept campaign contributions from Prabakaran’s parents and has admitted that he may have made a few errors of judgment in appointing one or two people during his presidency. Was he talking about one or two per day; per week; or per month; I wonder. The main contender, in a moment of extremely poor judgment, blurted that the president’s brother ordered the execution of some LTTE top…

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‘Uncivilising’ Sri Lanka

The SLPC Chairperson, Hudson Samarasinghe, is using vulgar telecasts and thereby contributing to the degeneration of language and public discourse within the country. The rudest forms of language used to refer to persons and the manner in which people are referred to publically are those which are considered in the language as most unacceptable. Such telecasts which last for hours are aired every day and the resultant adverse impact on the public discourse and the mentalities of person is enormous. This particularly has an adverse effect on young children who would use the language habits that they learned in the school by watching such public discourse. The language that is use is such that angry people use when they are quarrelling and is not the type of language that is used in civilised discourse. The same type of degeneration is caused by the language of the Minister, Mervyn Silva who uses similar language even in parliament. It is the language…

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Blinkered vision of Tamil nationalists and socialists is self-defeating

[Editors note: This article responds to key points raised by several noted commentators on the author's previous article here.] There’s one important lesson to be learnt from the presidential campaign so far: It’s becoming increasingly clear that the Mahinda-Regime is determined to hang on to power by hook or by crook. Ominous signs of thuggery against all opposition are widespread; the state-media’s shamelessly transparent propaganda is making a mockery of all journalistic principles. Over one and a half million Tamils have been deprived of their right to vote. The obvious truth is: forces of the establishment, including the military leadership, have ganged-up to defend the regime. Newly appointed military leaders have a vested interest in doing this. They probably think that a Fonseka-victory might lead to ruthless exposures of corruption and other sensitive issues related to the war. Thus, the Rajapaksa-brothers and the newly appointed military leaders have a ‘life-and-death’ interest to make sure Sarath Fonseka is defeated. The implication…

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An Allergy To Self-Criticism In Dominant Tamil Discourse

In hard science when an experiment repeatedly fails and finally blows up the lab with it, the very assumptions which form the basis of the experiment are reassessed and often abandoned.  The empirically evident track record of Tamil nationalist politics in Sri Lanka is that of repeated failure capped by defeat. However the dominant tendency in Sri Lankan Tamil nationalist politics, including in this postwar moment, has been quite other than one of critical self scrutiny. As I explained in several articles during the CFA and at Georgetown’s CSIS in November 2005, when placed in a comparative historical context, even the dramatic military victories of the Tigers disguised a great strategic failure. First rate guerrilla movements of national liberation (Mao’s PLA, Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh, Aferwerki’s EPLF, Nasrallah’s Hezbollah, to name a few) had achieved their objectives in far shorter time frames, while Prabhakaran who commenced the armed struggle in 1972, could neither retain Jaffna (’95) nor re-take it…

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The 2010 Elections: Finishing the War on Terror & Beginning the Battle for Democracy

The 26th of November 2009 went by without Vellupillai Prabhakaran making his annual Mahaveera Speech. We can effectively say that he and the LTTE died on the beaches of the Nandikandal Lagoon in May 2009. The Sri Lankan Government won the war against the LTTE and declared that Terrorism had been defeated. Some Sri Lankans danced in the streets, ate Milk Rice and lit fire crackers celebrating that Terrorism had been defeated. The wiser sections of Sri Lankan society knew that the defeat of the LTTE gave Sri Lanka only a glimmer of hope and that there will be much more to do in a post war Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. They bowed their heads, said a quick thank you and bravely carried on silently with their lives. Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction are key words and images that flash across our media and society today. Getting the economic and material resources to rebuild our country will be a…

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Christmas 2008 to Christmas 2009 in Sri Lanka

Last Christmas, together with few friends, we prayed desperately, hoping a bloodbath would be avoided This Christmas, we prayed and lit candles for the thousands killed and missing during the war, the ones who doesn’t have a grave as their family members had to run over the dead (and sometimes dyeing) bodies to save their own lives. Last Christmas, we prayed for a stop to political killings, disappearances, forced recruitments, unjust arrests and torture. And for families of those detained, disappeared, killed. This Christmas, we did the same. Last Christmas, we prayed for easing of government restrictions on food, medicine, shelter and access for aid agencies to help the people affected by war. This Christmas, we prayed for those injured & sick – as they were denied access to food and medicine and were also denied the opportunity to get help from those who wanted to help. Last Christmas, there were prayers for a military victory during the Christmas mass…

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A photo story: Five years on, forgotten victims of the tsunami

"Almighty Allah saved me from Tsunami,and I am confined to a small place now" says Mohamed Ismail Muhlood Umma (62)

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou, 4 April 1928 Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai in Saainthamaruthu Today is the 5th anniversary of a tsunami that devastated our country.Five years on, but how many of us still care for the people who suffered? The tsunami hit the Indian Ocean, killing nearly hundreds of thousands in eleven countries and inundating coastal communities with waves unto one hundred feet. According to experts, it was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India were the hardest hit. About thirty thousand people were killed in tsunami, millions injured and many more left homeless in Sri Lanka. The tidal waves hit North, East and South coastal areas. All rushed to the spots to help the victims on December 26th 2004. People canceled their holidays, and work and took part in…

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Better Governance: The Biggest Lesson of 2004 Tsunami

4-30--Tsunami

On 26 December 2009, we mark the fifth anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, one of the biggest and deadliest disasters in history. It left a trail of destruction across South and Southeast Asia, killing over 225,000 and shattering the lives of millions more. For many of us in the media and communication sectors, this was the biggest story of our lives. Because the killer waves hit numerous coastal locations in several countries, this disaster’s ‘Ground Zero’ was scattered far and wide. Not even the largest news organisations could see, hear and capture everything. Everyone had to choose. And not just geographically, but thematically too, the tsunami’s impact was felt across sectors, issues and concerns. That provided both ample scope and many challenges for journalists, aid workers and others who rushed to the multiple scenes of disaster. But there was a downside. Because the tsunami’s scale was so vast and its effects spread so wide, no single individual or organisation…

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A response to Dayan Jayatilleka’s “Mindless emotionalism and absence of thinking in Tamil politics”

I have been following Mr. Jayatilleka’s articles both on Groundviews and Tamil Week. While I do agree with some of his ideas such as a multi-ethnic Sri Lanka where citizenship is not defined by ethnicity, I disagree with his argument that mostly puts the onus on the Tamil minority to tread the line based on his definition of what constitutes a reasonable approach in their struggle to gain equal citizenship in Sri Lanka. In his latest article essentially he claims that the 13th amendment is the best the Tamils can expect and they should not push for more because it was offered at a time (1987) when things were more favorable towards the Tamil cause. He also rightly points out that it was more external pressure (India) than internal political maturity on the part of the Sinhalese political class that lead to the 13th amendment. It must be noted that the 13thamendment was not considered as the end all/be all…

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  • 24 Dec, 2009
  • 23 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Elections,
    Politics and Governance

Chavez, the Cynics and the “Big Lie” of the Presidential Campaign

[Editors note: The author and the commentator Doomed to Repeat had a length exchange of ideas on the author's previous post Sarath Fonseka - A potential De Gaulle or Chavez? This article refers to the specific comment by Doomed to repeat published here.] Dear “Doomed to Repeat”, Despite my disagreement with your ‘anti-dialectical’ approach to a world in transition, I must say, I enjoyed reading your comments for their rather simplistic clarity. I’ve heard exactly the same kind of sentiments from my beer-loving middle-class friends who love discussing politics (or any other subject under the sun) as a pastime. After all, the world is full of petite bourgeois cynics who’re quite satisfied with their own comfortable lifestyles and least bothered about intervening in changing the world. When asked, for instance, “Whom do you recommend us to vote in this election?” they often try their best to dodge the question. For cynics, the outcome isn’t that important. Those who want to…

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Mindless emotionalism and absence of thinking in Tamil politics

With “Sinhala hegemony” in its most dramatic form, the advancing Sri Lankan armed forces, closing in, Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism could not convince the Tamil Nadu voter of its cause and case, then surely it is imperative that that cause and case be identified as fatally flawed? If India with its 70 million Tamils could not be budged from its stance of low key but decisive support for the Sri Lankan state, surely there is no chance of leveraging any strategically significant Western support for Tamil nationalism, given that the main Asian partner of the USA is India? Given that MG Ramachandran was alive and one of the causative factors of the Indo-Lanka accord with its resultant the 13th amendment, it is safe to conclude that with him gone, Sri Lanka’s Tamils cannot extract anything better from Colombo? These are but three, fairly obvious yet vitally important issues –constituting samples–in the fundamental re-consideration that should have been underway in Tamil…

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Groundviews wins prestigious Manthan South Asia Award

Manthan 09 Logo

21 December 2009, Colombo, Sri Lanka: We are honoured and extremely pleased to win a prestigious Manthan Award South Asia under the e-news category. The award was presented to us at a ceremony held in New Delhi on Saturday, 19th December 2009. The Manthan Award South Asia is organised by the Digital Empowerment Foundation with the support of World Summit Award (WSA) and the Department of IT (DIT) of the Government of India. The award recognises the best digital and technology innovations to empower communities and is South Asia’s biggest event on ICT for masses, governance and rural development. 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!” This year, Groundviews was the only Sri Lankan initiative featured in the e-news category and also the first Sri Lankan initiative to win an award in this category….

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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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