Archive for January, 2010

Challenges of Development: The Next Phase

It is over. We have a winner, and we have a loser. The margin of victory has many messages. In mature democracies, play leading up to the climax is performed in a slightly different way, and it is customary for the loser to telephone and congratulate the winner on the morning after. We saw none of that here. The night before we saw the rise of a special tribe, whose characteristics were identified by their motto declared the morning after, if you met any of them at breakfast: “I don’t particularly like the guy who won, but I like even less the guy who lost”. That declaration is usually followed by the obligatory joke about “military intelligence” being an oxymoron. What a fool-proof way in which our countrymen demonstrated the truth in it? Permit me to give you a break and entertain you with stories about my travels and childhood memories. After doing a lot of travel in Sri Lanka…

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President’s second term: Two options before the Supreme Court

There is, at present, much excitement over the question of when re-elected President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s second (and new) term begins. Various news reports concerning the matter have been published in the print media. It was reported once that the President had informed certain media heads that he would consult the Supreme Court to get an opinion on the matter. Certain other media reports have suggested that the President had informed he would take oaths on the 4 February, 2010. Position under the Constitution of 1978 The Constitutional provisions concerning the question of when a re-elected President’s second term begins are quite clear, though illogical. The relevant provision is Article 31 (3A)(d)(i), which provides that if the President is re-elected, he will hold office ‘for a term of six years commencing on such date in the year in which that election is held (being a date after such election) or in the succeeding year, as corresponds to the date on which…

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ELECTORAL NANDIKADAL: NATIONAL-POPULAR vs. NEO-COMPRADOR

“Prabhakaran, a textbook fascist…” - The Economist (‘Victory for the Tiger Slayer’ Jan 28th, 2010) “Resistance to imperialism does not of course involve only armed force or bands of guerrillas. It is mainly allied with nationalism and with an aroused sense of aggrieved religious, cultural or existential identity.”- Edward Said (‘The Voyage In: Third World Intellectuals and Metropolitan Cultures’) It is easy to be wise after the event, so I usually try to be wise before it. In a piece originally entitled ‘Crisis 2010: The post election scenario’ published over a month ago, from Dec 20th 2009 through to the 23rd, in the Sunday Lakbima, Transcurrents, Sri Lanka Guardian and Ada Derana, this is how I saw the Presidential election panning out: “It is a fairly safe assumption that with the Southern province elections the Rajapakse administration hit its electoral ceiling and the UNP its floor. The ceiling is fairly high, around 65%, and the floor (almost a basement floor, courtesy Mr. Wickremesinghe)…

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  • 30 Jan, 2010
  • 39 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Elections,
    Politics and Governance

Outcome of presidential elections in Sri Lanka: Is there anything to analyse?

On the day after elections, I sat in the afternoon to write this amidst phone calls and text messages inquiring and informing about “strong” rumours on “result rigging” by the Rajapaksa regime. All rumours, spinning wildly in the world of the all knowing urban middle class, who had “access to inside information”, but knew nothing about of how an election is conducted and the results are released. Their “inside” information, was not the information that was available in the districts outside Colombo, where President Rajapaksa was heavily voted for. In those districts, the Opposition political activists, the UNF, the JVP, the SLMC and the DPF counting agents in counting centres who sat through the night along with thousands of public servants who manually counted ballot papers and knew how the voting had been in their own areas, resigned to their abodes in accepting the declared results. If there had been any manipulation(s) thereafter in Colombo, those who toiled in the…

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The loud and clear message from the voter turnout and the voters in the North and East

Aachcharya writing from Jaffna I wrote on the 30th of December in a post to Groundviews (and republished in the Daily Mirror) that the assertion that the Tamil people would be deciders in the Presidential election would be a myth. There was nothing brilliant or extraordinary about what I said at that time, but it was contrary to public perception that was prevalent all over the country and in international media circles. What I suggested was that for the Tamil people to be deciders two conditions have to be fulfilled. I wrote: “For the Tamils to be the deciders in the election (like they could have been in the last) they have to vote as a whole, to one candidate and the Sinhala votes to both candidates should be almost equal.” A lot of people thought it would be close in the South. I feared a good lead for Mahinda Rajapaksha in the rural south. I told my friends that…

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An Ode to a Bright Future

I hear the crack of a whip, you tell me it’s the sound of peace. I don’t believe you. Speak for yourself. Not for me. I heard them coming. They have no choice. I saw them cry. They have no choice. Shame on you. They have no choice. A picture speaks a thousand words, silence another- Silence. We have given up. Silenced. We have accepted defeat. Repost This Article

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Open letter to the President of Sri Lanka

January 28, 2010 Dear Mr. President, Congratulations on your land slide victory which, like most Colombo elites, I was stunned by. Your spokesperson Dr R Wijesinghe quite rightly described us as shallow and lacking foresight and the common touch unlike the rural polity who rightly judged your true capability and potential based purely on your good governance and not by manipulation through crafty and cut throat state propaganda. We eagerly look forward to another six or maybe eight? years of glorious Mahinda Chinthanaya. We have full confidence in your wise and just governance which you have so clearly displayed during the past four years. Yes, you narrowly missed a foul coup plotted by your adversary which would have destroyed you and your entire family as well as your extended family and even certain key public officials who have proved their worth as eminent and honest advisors to your rule.  Even post election, the truth needs to be shown on national…

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10 reasons why you should celebrate Mahinda Rajapaksa’s victory

Sarath Fonseka lost. We no longer need to stress ourselves to a level requiring medication worrying about what he might do if he wins. We can stop pretending to like him. Mahinda Rajapaksa can never ever run for President again (unless of course he changes the constitution). Stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea, almost 75% of people still went out and voted. That’s always a good thing. Almost 2% of the people voted for someone other than Mahinda and Sarath. That’s just awesome. We haven’t seen that in some time. Compared to landslide victories in recent provincial council polls, 57.88% is a significant drop in popularity for the Rajapakse Government. (E.g. from 72.39% to 58.59% in Uva) This trend could hurt Mahinda’s chances of getting a 2/3 majority in the Parliament. The Tamil people have made it very clear that they don’t believe that Rajapakse is doing anything for them. Now we can see if how he…

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Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr. President, I’d like to congratulate you in advance for your impending victory of the Presidential election in the following days to come. With the SLFP consolidating their power through the provincial council polls in the aftermath of the war, a presidential re-election and another term with you as President seems inevitable. The potential in Sri Lanka knows no bounds; therefore boundaries must be clearly drawn so that this potential is not exploited by a few for themselves and for their kith and kin. This has undoubtedly taken place in Sri Lanka time and again, with every administration that has governed the country. This needs to be addressed by the authorities and checks need to come into play. For example, it is not only unlawful but also very ugly to see policemen being transferred for obeying the rule of the law and for cleaning up the visual pollution that has plagued our country during the time of this election campaign….

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Photos from Colombo, one day after Presidential polls

Hurried shot of Cin Grand exterior (before the guys with the guns told me to fuck off) - Jan 27, 11 am

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Post-election updates from Colombo

Screen shot 2010-01-27 at 1.23.52 PM

I’ve been tweeting from around 3am this morning on what’s going on in Colombo after the elections, and in particular what is at the time of writing a rather tense situation around the hotel that presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka is residing in. Leading English mainstream media websites are crashing under the heavy load of web traffic, so mirrored links to key articles appearing in them about the current situation are also provided. See all the updates on the Twitter feed of Groundviews. Repost This Article

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  • 27 Jan, 2010
  • 1 Comment
  • Colombo,
    Elections,
    Politics and Governance

People’s immediate post election responsibility on “corruption” promises

The presidential campaigns concluded officially a day ago and the “Programme for Protection of Public Property” (4P) calculated and exposed the cost of advertisements by each of the two main presidential candidates. Incumbent president as UPFA candidate had spent LKR 377.9 million says 4P, while the UNF-JVP Common Candidate had spent LKR 80.5 million. The actual cost of running these mega campaigns are, far in excess of these calculated millions on advertisements. Advertising is only a part of the total campaign budgets. The total campaign costs may have been twice or even thrice the advertisement budget. Now, from where did these monies come ? This is written on the day before January 26th the day of presidential polls that would neither bring in a “brighter future” nor a “believable change” for many reasons, unless the people have heart for such “believable change” for a “brighter future”. First, the election day and its post election dawn, don’t seem any peaceful. Second,…

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A bizarre polling card: Evidence of a flawed election?

Poll-card-small

We feature this video captured by Groundviews today without any additional comment because it is abundantly clear which candidate the sign stapled on to this anomalous polling card refers to. It is also very clear what such an indication outrageously and completely illegally attached to a polling card implies. As this voter asks in the video, who has the power to commit such a gross violation of election laws? Click here for high resolution image of this polling card. An English transcript of the video follows: I am Prasanna Perera. I live in Kottawa, in the Pannipitiya area. When polling cards were being distributed for this time’s presidential elections, our house also gets four polling cards. My brother, myself, my mother and father. These polling cards were distributed on the 24th. I saw it on the morning of the 25th. When I saw it, there was stapled to the polling card this sign of a beetle leaf with a cross…

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From here to nowhere and to an ‘Ahmadinejadian’ end?

“We vote to get president. We get president. But where our vote, we don’t know” was a line that I had saved from a news report on the Iranian presidential polls in June 2009. What ever the man on a Teheran street wanted conveyed, it meant the presidential election results and their voting had no compatibility. What will it be here after 2010 January 26 presidential elections ? The election campaign here in SL is now “officially” over. Yet, there is campaigning going on. What would the result be ? Will it be “we get president. But where’s our vote” story ? Just 02 days more for the polls, what could the answer be ? Those who said, “it could be either way” a fortnight ago, now prefer to say, one with the “bigger muscle power” could be the winner. Will it be ? We have local election monitors churning out daily reports. There are foreign election monitors in town…

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Sri Lanka at Cross Roads: What a Victory for the UNF will Mean

It appears to be the most powerful electoral alliance that has ever been formed in the country.A political phenomenon, a coalition containing diametrically opposed political views led by someone without any formal political membership of any political party of the alliance he presides over. But how far will they march together either in their victory or defeat in the Presidential election on 26 January? Is it their last desperate attempt against a powerful political leader who has to be defeated at all cost, irrespective of their own closely guarded ideological and political beliefs? If not is the UNF an insolvable political contradiction that has been united by their political opportunism? This article attempts to examine the political character of the parties involved in the UNF with particular reference to their histories and their implications for political stability and democracy in Sri Lanka Violent Political History The JVP identifies itself as a Marxist- Leninist party and believes in socialist revolution. They…

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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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