Archive for January, 2010

  • 7 Jan, 2010
  • 5 Comments
  • Diaspora,
    Kandy

Don’s Diary: One week in Sri Lanka

Strict Instructions – where is the “please”? (Avoid taking the drink bottle out of the canteen)

Saturday: Fly from Heathrow to Colombo; uneventful journey; drink gin and tonic, take long sleep. Hear that an aunt passed away just before departure. Sunday: Catch up on sleep and go to funeral. My cousin goes through religious rituals, with the priest dragging on. He is a nice guy, my cousin, meticulously following all instructions from the priest. When in his position, at my dad’s funeral a few months ago, I had a quiet word with the priest: “Itupaththu Oraam nootaaNdu aiya, vEhamaahap pOngO (it is the twenty first Century, priest, go faster)”, and he obliged. Doesn’t matter though, because the only person at the event with good knowledge of Sanskrit was my dad, and he was dead. At my aunt’s funeral, I think of her amazingly peaceful life. “Wouldn’t hurt a fly” is most appropriate. Monday: Email from a friend inviting me to an event on Sunday afternoon in memory of Kailasapathy, the founding President of the Jaffna University….

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Concerns of first time voters in the 2010 presidential elections

In the upcoming presidential election a new voter base will be in play. A generation of first time voters whose futures will depend on the winner of next month’s election, are faced with deciding which candidate has the right vision to take this country forward and more importantly the credibility that would ensure the implementation of that vision. Even with all the lofty rhetoric being spewed by the front runners, their past actions have left many unconvinced that either of them will set and abide by the necessary measures to bring about stability in the country. In a list of concerns that young voters feel need to be addressed, freedom of expression is front and center. This demographic, who were born into the age of the internet where ideas can be easily disseminated over a wide ranging audience, sees freedom of expression as a necessary tool to bring about unity and prosperity in the country. For Ameen Hashim (name changed)…

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Paying global media for local elections

Hindustan Times

It is probably not the incumbent President himself in charge of the massive re-election campaign which has no qualms about misusing State property and public finances or perverting telecoms regulations to deliver propaganda via SMS. Yet to date, there has been no official statement or clarification over these clear reports of gross misappropriation of public resources. In yet another bizarre example of a campaign gone berserk, it appears that banner ads have been purchased on leading global media sites to promote the incumbent Executive. Examples of these generic banner ads are reported to be on the webpages of, The Telegraph The Independent The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune The Sydney Morning Herald The Hindu The Indian Express The Hindustan Times The Guardian Facebook profile pages (in addition to the official page of the incumbent on the platform) Gmail (on text links that appear next to emails) Amongst a number of other questions, we wonder why the incumbent feels…

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TNA’s Failure to Seize the Moment: Who Will Fill the Vacuum?

The TNA’s ability to negotiate a comprehensive devolution package for the Tamil community with either Mahinda Rajapaksa or Sarath Fonseka is becoming more and more distant as the Presidential election draws nearer. This has greatly benefited Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sarath Fonseka as they could play safer electoral politics in the Sinhalese South without dealing with the issue of  the devolution of power to the Tamil community. The TNA’s misery is a direct result of their current disunity and their lack of political direction in the democratic politics after the military defeat of the LTTE. There is no emerging political leadership that is farsighted and politically mature enough to take the Tamil community’s democratic rights to the centre stage in the Presidential election. The outcome of the Presidential election will be crucial and can usher a new era to the nation only with the participation of the Tamil community in securing their democratic rights. The aim of this account is to…

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Guidance on Star Gazing: Government to set up Advisory Council for Astrologers?

Colombo, Sri Lanka - A special Advisory Council for Astrologers is to be established in the lead up to presidential elections to ensure “consistency” in astrological forecasts, claims a source from the Ministry of Indigenous Sciences speaking exclusively to Banyan News Reporters. The Ministry is expected to put forward a cabinet paper in the first week of January proposing the Advisory Council, which will play a supervisory role over all astrologers registered with the Ministry. “This is aimed at improving astrological predictions and to prevent citizens from being abused and misled by untrustworthy astrologers” claimed a source from the Ministry of Indigenous Sciences. “Some unpatriotic astrologers do not give predictions based on their astrological calculations and just say what they think will please their clients. This is unscientific, unscrupulous and a violation of established cosmological principles” added the source. The Advisory Council is expected to consist of seven leading astrologers who will oversee the readings of other astrologers. The Council will…

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Engage the Diaspora

As all issues pertaining to ethnicity in Sri Lanka the role of the Diaspora Tamils has become a point of contention in Sri Lanka. As usual this group is defined in monolithic terms by most commentators within Sri Lanka and its diversity of opinion is overlooked. There is little effort to understand the diversity within this group or to engage them in a constructive manner for the benefit of long-term peace and prosperity in Sri Lanka. The divergence of political opinions/beliefs within the Tamil Diaspora ranges from supporting a separate state in the North/East of Sri Lanka, to a fair political solution within the framework of Sri Lanka that addressed the legitimate grievances of the minorities. There are also many who are not active on issues regarding Sri Lanka and are more preoccupied in making a life for themselves in the countries they have emigrated to. If you were to add the layers of the second and the third generation…

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Sri Lanka awaits a change

The present President of Sri Lanka, who consolidated his power after defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) militarily, has spurned the pledges of ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ manifesto of the 2005 presidential elections. Now he is working mainly for the ambitions of his family, completely overlooking the common masses. While corruption and nepotism reign, people’s democratic rights including press freedom are being curtailed. No plan of action has been underway even to reduce the rising cost of living. Having brought the present President to power, the southern polity tolerated the unbearable cost of living and even sacrificed lives of their own children. With the end of the war, they expected reduction of cost of living, solutions to their other socio-economic problems and development of the country would advance. They deemed that unprecedented prospects would open up for this to happen. However, there are no signs of fulfilling these expectations on the horizon. On the other hand, Tamil people expected a…

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Unsolicited SMS messages are spam. Please desist Mr. President.

All mobile phone subscribers, across all networks got an SMS from the President this morning – “Kiwu paridi obata NIDAHAS, NIVAHAL RATAK laba dunnemi. Idiri anagathaya sarwapparakarayenma Wasanawantha Wewa! SUBA NAWA WASARAK WEWA! Mahinda Rajapaksa” (As I promised, I gave you a free and independent country. May your future be successful in all ways. Happy New Year!) Many thought it was a hoax until it was confirmed in the media that the message was legit. At the conservative estimate of 1 rupee per message, and around 12.6 million mobile phone accounts in Sri Lanka, this one SMS message could have cost over US$ 110,000 to send out. A number of pertinent questions arise around this extraordinary SMS message. Did anyone pay for this SMS message sent from the President’s office, and if so, exactly how much of our money was spent? One mobile operator had told Daily Mirror that the SMS was sent to all of their subscribers following a request…

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A bitter feud and an ugly media spectacle in the lead up to Presidential elections

This presidential election is unlike any other.  There are no manifestos published yet to augment a healthy political debate and policies do not appear to concern the two main candidates. At this moment, the citizenry would have preferred to hear from the chief contenders their formulae for nation building post war. Yet, what we find is both candidates, President Mahinda Rajapakse and the opposition common candidate, General (Retd) Sarath Fonseka harping on two topics. Firstly, on who can justly claim credit for the war victory and secondly, whether The Sunday Leader’s recent story on alleged war crimes is true or not. The presidential poll is being held two years ahead of schedule, and that too for a reason. The incumbent’s wish was to skillfully capitalize on the military defeat of the LTTE. What he did not bargain for was the former Army Commander Fonseka’s political aspirations that led him to a quick entry into the presidential race. Enduring diatribe Instead…

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DAYAN JAYATILLEKA’S CRITIQUE OF TAMIL NATIONALISM: A COMMENT

[Editors note: This article responds to Dayan Jayatilleka's article An Allergy To Self-Criticism In Dominant Tamil Discourse.] I have read with considerable interest Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke’s recent critiques of the post-war strategic and normative dynamics of Tamil nationalism in terms of their limits and challenges. The most recent of these interventions are the piece on Groundviews, and another attenuated and slightly differently slanted article in The Island, both of 28th December 2009. When I first read the Groundviews piece, it was freshly posted and there were no comments, but almost all of the comments as have so far been made, have been in a predictable tenor: approximately, that Dayan is an arrogant agent of the racist Sinhala State who was integral to its showdown with the LTTE, and, despite his unceremonious dismissal, continues to hold and belligerently defend the kind of hard-line statist and congenitally anti-LTTE views that got him the Geneva job in the first place. In my view,…

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Happy New Year!

Over the historic 2009, Groundviews featured international award winning online content on Sri Lanka. The first of many improvements planned over 2010,Groundviews will soon launch a completely revamped look and feel to strengthen the site’s signature content. We invite you to contribute to and comment on the site, and participate in another year of pathbreaking journalism for citizens, by citizens. We also hope that this year, a peace greater than the absence of war, with justice and reconciliation will take root in Sri Lanka.

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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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