Archive for February, 2010

Living Secular in the ‘Sinhala Buddhist Republic’ of Sri Lanka

Two years ago, in a moment of panic, I rushed my young daughter to Colombo’s only children’s hospital. To be honest, I don’t normally turn to our overcrowded government hospitals for healthcare. But a doctor friend had recommended the Lady Ridgeway Hospital as the best place for administering the anti-rabies vaccine. As with all government hospitals, they first wanted to record the patient’s basic bio data. Fair enough. I provided the child’s name, age and street address. For some reason, the form also asked for the patient’s religion. Before I could say anything, the nurse in charge wrote ‘Buddhist’. Now, this was both incorrect and highly presumptuous. But when I objected, it sparked off an argument. The formidable woman insisted that with a ‘good Sinhalese surname’ like ours, we simply had to be Buddhists! When I said her assumption was wrong, she asked me with some disdain: are you then a Christian? No again. Now she was beginning to be…

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Interview with Ameena Hussein

Ameena Hussein is one of Sri Lanka’s best known English authors. She is also one half of the Perera Hussein Publishing House, that since 2003 has published some of the best new English writing in the country. The Moon in the Water, Ameena’s first novel, was long-listed for the first Man Asian Literary Award in 2009. Zillij, a collection of short stories I reviewed four years ago, won the State Literary Prize in 2003. Our discussion touched on Ameena’s tryst with cancer and how this influenced her writing and outlook on life. We also talked about English literature in general, and the quality of contemporary English fiction in Sri Lanka. Ameena also talked about identity, gender and violence – both in and through her fiction and their manifestations in the real world. We spoke at some length on the politics of representation and the contested space for women in Islam, harking back to two articles on Groundviews published last year in…

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Do candidates need armed security to ask for people’s votes?

I have read and heard of W. Dahanayake travelling to Colombo from Galle in the morning “Ruhunu Kumari” train with all those other ordinary passengers, getting off at the Kollupitiya station to go to his ministry in Union Place, when he was Co-operative Minister in the J.R. Jayawardne government. That was in early 1980′s. There were other MPs and Ministers too in the past, who used to travel by train to Colombo, to attend parliamentary sessions. Some even booked sleeping berths, for they travelled through night from Jaffna or Badulla, to be in parliament for the morning sessions. None of them then would have ever thought of themselves being elected representatives of the people, going about with armed security escorting them. Elected representatives then were escorted by their political supporters, their voters in the village. The whole concept of an elected representative, despite its legal or constitutional definition, was quite different to that of today. Then a MP was a…

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PRABAKARAN MUST BE LAUGHING

Mahinda Rajapaksa seems to be turning into his one-time enemies. During the reign of terror (bheeshanaya) in the late 1980s, which was started by J.R.Jayawardene and continued by R.Premadasa, around 60,000 Sinhalese were tortured, disappeared and killed by the state. At that time, Rajapaksa collected evidence of these crimes and took them to the international community, the UN. For doing this, he was called a ‘traitor’. Now it is Rajapaksa’s own regime that is guilty of torture, disappearances and killings, of Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims. And he is the one who calls anyone offering to give evidence of these crimes to the international community ‘traitors’! A more recent enemy of Rajapaksa was Prabakaran. He claimed to be the sole representative of Tamils in Sri Lanka. Freedom of expression was non-existent in the areas under his control. Tamil civilians who disagreed with him were called ‘traitors’ and arrested, tortured, or simply killed. He even killed his close associate Mahatthaya because he posed…

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…for The Missing

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A solitary lamp perched on a desk top lights a room. A man scribbles feverishly on paper, hunched over the light as if he’s jealously guarding what little he has. His desk is cluttered with cartoons and drawings – some of a President, others of two small children. He holds down his paper with one hand and writes with the other, so violently that other loose papers and articles shuffle with his movements. He is breathing hard, as if he’s run to his desk from sleep, taken by wild inspiration. He has forgotten to switch on the fan, and the heat of that December night hangs in the air, thickening like spoiling milk. Small explosions of sweat begin to burst from the pores of his forehead, drip darkly onto his fast-moving hand, and trickle onto the paper, blotting the ink. This frustrates him but he doesn’t stop to soak up the liquid, just writes on, faster. His wife lies in…

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Parliamentary Elections 2010: Living through a kleptocracy and not wanting an alternative

Are we honestly serious in wanting democracy, our rights and human development, to live in Sri Lanka ? If we are, how are we seeing to it, that we do really enjoy such a luxury in this beleaguered nation ? All what had been happening and allowed to happen, don’t in any way even hint that this country is at least serious about living by the day, leave alone democracy, rights and development for the future. If the people were serious, this society would not be entertaining any of the rubbish that is doled out as politics and promises by political leaderships, blue, green or red, at every election for 62 years. If the people are serious, this country would not have had all this riff raff in society coming forward to contest elections and also get elected to be part of government and often be called “Ministers”. If there was any semblance of seriousness, the type of humbugs that…

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The Buddha Sasana: Sri Lanka’s biggest NGO?

Sometimes words are used so often and so uncritically that they not only lose communicative value but those who utter them and those who hear them no longer know what they mean.  We really don’t know what ‘democracy’ means, do we?  Decency, anyone?  How about justice?  Love?  There are thousands of such words and terms including ‘people’,  ‘sustainability’, ‘development’ and ‘hegemony’, but I am thinking of a name, an acronym, a term, a phenomenon, a curse and an agent, all rolled into one.  NGO. Non-Governmental Organization.  I first heard it in May 1988 at the Marga Institute, while engaged in a study of development assistance, its sources and destinations.  It didn’t take long for acronym to comfortably replace term.  And so we had NGOs and INGOS (i.e. those NGOs that were ‘international’ in character), repositories of wealth, residences for all kinds of shady creatures and especially internally displaced and thoroughly confused self-styled Leftists. A study on the ‘NGO Sector’ commissioned…

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Bottom Dwelling Scum Suckers and Catfish

There is a joke that has been floating for a while with regard to the value added by lawyers to our daily existence. It asks the question whether you know the difference between a lawyer and a catfish. If you are interested, the answer is; one is a fish and the other is a bottom dwelling scum sucker. In fairness to the lawyer fraternity, it should be noted that the above only applies to a miniscule number among them. Most are honorable men and women who ply their trade according to the laws of the land and obviously the implied negativity does not apply to them. Unfortunately, the few bad apples among the law fraternity have a tendency to ascend to positions of power and influence precisely because they are willing to step into morally confusing and value compromising situations where others fear to tread. In the case of the current state of Sri Lanka’s disunion and the exclusive rights…

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The ‘Sinhala-Nationalist’s Burden’

Mr. Gomin Dayasiri’s article, titled ‘Tamil Grievances – Untouched & Unattended’ (Daily Mirror, 16 February 2010) reveals the Sinhala nationalist perspective concerning the kind of solution necessary for the resolution of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. It is an important piece, written by a respected senior lawyer, a nationalist. The author points to some valuable propositions. But there are certain aspects of it which are disturbing. The fundamental appeal made by Mr. Dayasiri reflects, to a large extent, a kind of home-grown version of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘white man’s burden’. Mr. Dayasiri argues that the ‘government had failed to attend to the legitimate grievances of the Tamils’ and reminds us that if it continues to fail in this regard, ‘photographs of Prabhakaran will appear on the cadjan walls in the backwoods of the peninsula’. Mr. Dayasiri is correct. Analyzing the message sent out by the majority in the North and the East, Mr. Dayasiri states that it is a ‘protest…

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Exceptional responses to questions from media

Groundviews was able to obtain an audio recording of an exchange between Swiss journalist Karin Wenger and a well-known, senior journalist now part of the Presidential Media Unit (PMU). Karin’s visa and media accreditation to cover the Sri Lankan presidential election was revoked after she asked several questions from government representatives at an official press briefing. As reported by Deutsche Welle, “I asked two questions,” Wenger says. “Why were there so many troops in front of opposition candidate Fonseka’s hotel? And the second referred to rumours we kept hearing: Was it true that the president’s brother Basil Rajapaksa was inside the election commission’s office?” An official stopped her after the press conference and started shouting at her: “I won’t be subdued by a white skin! Keep this in mind!” Emphasis ours. podcast As reported in Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Karin Wenger’s deportation order was rescinded by the government on 31 January, which perhaps as a face saving measure said the order…

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SARATH FONSEKA AFFAIR: POLITICAL CANNIBALISM MUST CEASE IN SRI LANKA!

“All my life I have been a gentleman to my adversaries, even in war situations surrounded by death. I’ve never humiliated, offended nor wreaked revenge on a single prisoner, not even in the case of the Bay of Pigs while my comrades lay mortally wounded or dead around me…One must be honourable.” – Fidel Castro ( May 1st speech, 2002) I leave the country for scholarly reflection and writing for (at least) two years, with a heavy heart.  I am proud to have supported President Rajapakse at the 2005 and 2010 elections and I think he is the best leader the country can have at this point of time.  However, the practice of political cannibalism must cease! A balance must be restored. At the parliamentary elections the voters should exercise their franchise in such a manner so as to deprive the ruling coalition of a monopoly or overwhelming preponderance of power. The present path on which the government is proceeding…

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Going beyond Sarath Fonseka in achieving democracy for people

A visibly shaken wife in tears, Anoma Fonseka told the media “this is the gift my husband got for finishing a 30 year war”. Gen Sarath Fonseka was arrested, or detained, or taken into custody or may have been even abducted by a military group late in the evening on Monday from his office, in Colombo. What ever label one gives for such exercises, they eventually end up as legal arrests in Sri Lanka, as was earlier proved in the case of Uthayan and Sudar Oli editor N. Vidyadaran’s abduction, on 26 February, 2009 while the war was on and Gen Fonseka was the army commander. Apparently the end of the war has not changed it to be any better. As for what’s now happening, the reading was on the wall. Quite plain and clear while the two opposing candidates fought their battle for presidency with rhetoric sans politics. Accusing each other, of plotting to kill each other. The presidential…

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  • 11 Feb, 2010
  • 1 Comment
  • Poetry

Sri Lanka Snapshot, 2010

For residents and visitors The giant leafy mango tree in the back garden has been cut down screamed the poet, Scar and the hyenas are in charge, the stomach queasy, revolted, Il Duce megaphoned War is Peace; in the exhaust fumes of a white van a soul flits about then vanishes, betrayal on 4 million tongues, the State is Me yet some of me is afraid to return, to stay, paralysed while State police black shirts twirling clubs pulp Lasantha to welcome in the year that ends with Sarath abducted, the State afraid will cover all tracks, Defense is Offense, Minister draws sap at Duttu’s right hand, while his boys play cricket for the nation and liberals cower before the impressive exertion of force and law to suppress dissent, under the ever-present pings of execution on camera phone, cerebral matter splattered to disco beats, while new-born howls alleviate the gloom, breathing air in the bloody morning room.

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VALEDICTORY FOR A SEASON

The Sri Lankan crisis continues, sourced in and stemming from two major flaws/factors: (i) There is no comprehension that “justice must not only be done, but be seen to be done” and that what is legal in the narrowest sense may not be perceived as legitimate or ethical in the broader sense. The consequences for institutions, the long term health of the body politic and the larger national ethos are never considered. (ii) None of the major political players have a correct grasp of the problem of evolving/constructing a broad, truly Sri Lankan national identity. President Rajapakse had it right on the issue of the Tamil Tigers; the issue of fascist separatist-terrorism. He had it more correct than all his predecessors and his critics here and overseas. He has it wrong at least some of the time on the Tamil ethno national question.  I say “some of the time” because he has broadly distinguishable positions on that issue and some…

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Mahinda Rajapaksa’s second term: Opportunities and challenges for constitutional reform

I interviewed recently Rohan Edrisinha, who lectures at the Law Faculty, University of Colombo. Along with a number of other issues related to prospects of meaningful constitutional reform in Sri Lanka during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s second term in office, Rohan addressed the farrago of approaches by the Rajapakse administration towards the implementation of the 17th and 13th Amendments in particular and the fate of the APRC, now largely forgotten in the mêlée of presidential and parliamentary elections. We also spoke in general about the nature of constitution making in Sri Lanka, as an exercise that does not involve the input of citizens and is often seen as used as an instrument of partisan politics.

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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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