Archive for December, 2009

Visualising key speeches and submissions of Sarath Fonseka

SF Temple Speech - Small

Now officially a Presidential aspirant, erstwhile Army Commander Sarath Fonseka has, since late October 2009 made a number of verbal and written submissions regarding his candidacy and political life after retirement. In October 2009 he made a speech at a Buddhist Temple in Washington DC. On the 12th November, he handed in his resignation addressed to the President. On 27th November, when it was an open secret that he would contest the Presidential elections, he gave an in-depth interview to the Daily Mirror newspaper. For the first time, the following visualizations of Fonseka’s key submissions to date, using the web based Wordle, reveal the most frequently used words in each of them. Visualisations such as this obviously have their drawbacks for serious semantic analysis. For example, the former General’s interview with the Daily Mirror was a clear and controversial break with the Executive’s avowed belief that post-war, there are no longer any minorities or majorities in Sri Lanka. On the…

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The up-coming Presidential election and the aspirations of the people

It would be fair to say that the vast majority of the people aspire for a life with peace, dignity, security, democratic freedom and prosperity. They aspire for an open, honest, efficient system of governance which is accountable to them. They wish for a political culture which nurtures unity and solidarity among the various nations, nationalities and communities. They dream of a world free of all forms of domination, exploitation, oppression and WAR! Finally, we could say that the people aspire to stand proud and tall, second to none, in the community of nations. Would this presidential contest fulfill these democratic aspirations of the people? Historically, every successive government has failed to fulfill these aspirations of the people. Each successive government has intensified division and violent conflict through  supremacist politics. . They have multiplied corruption and abuse. They have made the country ever more pitifully dependent on international finance capital and world imperialism. They have intensified poverty, indebtedness, misery and…

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Elections: For whom and for what?

A critical examination of elections in Sri Lanka It is an election festival once again.  The whole country is getting ready for the big fight where two war heroes meet in the Presidential election ring. According to the government’s spokesperson, apparently President Rajapakse has finished what he planned for six years in four, so he is expecting a fresh mandate for more work. Mind you, this is not it, as the term of the present parliament expires in April 2009 and the Government will have to call for the parliamentary election also within the course of next four months. All these elections will surely cost a humongous amount of public funds which could have been easily allotted to ease off the present economic burdens of the citizens. Therefore, this election festivity, for sure raises public concern as to for whom these elections are really meant for and for what. In this light, this paper attempts to critically examine the role…

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A review of The Travelling Circus

The late review is at an advantage, in that it is informed by the published critiques of others and subsequent responses online and in print. In this respect, watching Tracy Holsinger’s The Travelling Circus on the last day of its run was to juxtapose the live performance against reviews that dismissed the production as highfalutin nonsense and others that praised it as compelling theatre. Tracy’s attempt at devised theatre is without, to my knowledge, precedent in Sri Lankan English drama. With roots in commedia dell’arte, devised theatre is a difficult form, which even seasoned actors balk at since it involves co-creation and improvisation instead of the comparatively more straightforward interpretation, direction and delivery of a script. This dramatic inflorescence requires a high degree of skill and discipline from both director and actor alike. The Travelling Circus, in this respect, was a technical tour de force and, by far, the best production of Tracy’s theatre group Mind Adventures to date. I…

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Dealing with law and order as an issue of the Presidential elections

A crucial issue for any type of stability and for good governance in Sri Lanka is the restoration of law and order. Litanies of complaints have been made by politicians and almost everyone else about the pathetic level to which the law and order has deteriorated in Sri Lanka. The joint candidate for the opposition in the coming presidential election has promised that restoration of law and order will be one of the priorities for his office is he is elected as the president. The issue of law and order in Sri Lanka is essentially about the problem of the crisis of the policing system in Sri Lanka. Any promise to restore law and order would only imply a promise to deal with the enormous crisis besetting the Sri Lankan policing system. In one single word, the disease affecting the Sri Lankan policing system has been characterized by everyone who diagnosed the problem as politicization of the institution. Thus, the…

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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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