Archive for August, 2010

Jayantha Dhanapala responds to erroneous and selective media reports of his submission to LLRC

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Internal Armed Conflicts, Humanitarian Laws and the Curious Transformation of Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala by Kalana Senaratne on Groundviews flagged a number of pertinent questioning arising from the media reportage of Jayantha Dhanapala’s submission to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recently. On our Facebook page as well as through numerous emails sent to the Editors, many present at this session of the LLRC said that media reports, including those on the Ministry of Defence website of Jayantha Dhanapala’s submission were extremely biased and inaccurate. We publish below a response to these reports by Jayantha Dhanapala as well as his written submission to the LLRC. Download this letter as a PDF here. OUTLINE OF SUBMISSION MADE BY JAYANTHA DHANAPALA TO COMMISSION ON LESSONS LEARNT AND RECONCILIATION My experience as a career diplomat in the Sri Lanka Foreign Service from 1965-97, and in particular my period as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva from 1984-87 and…

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A-Z of Sri Lankan English: D is for deffa

Eyebrows were raised when I included the word deffa on the mirisgala website under “new entries”. And it’s true that it is stretching the point to claim that it qualifies as standard Sri Lankan English. But perhaps it also gives us an insight into the future of SLE. Deffa (or defa) is a word that is increasingly common in internet chatrooms etc. It is an abbreviation of the English word definitely, which is used in colloquial Sinhala as an alternative to the slightly formal anivareng. From Sinhala (via Singlish?) it has re-entered colloquial Sri Lankan English with the same meaning. Here are a few examples from the internet: He will defa help you out. dudes…we can all defa chip in a bit and raise 300000 bucks… there’s deffa a chance of retrieving stuff … we’ll deffa be there! Another word which has taken a similar route is shape, which has a far wider range of meanings in current colloquial SLE…

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Internal Armed Conflicts, Humanitarian Laws and the Curious Transformation of Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala

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Photo courtesy Global Zero Numerous reports suggest that Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala had some interesting things to say when he appeared before the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recently; about aspects relating to the interference of certain States in the internal affairs of other States; about the R2P concept; about the Sri Lankan Armed Forces carrying out a daunting humanitarian operation, saving 300,000 innocent civilians kept as a human shield by the LTTE and thereby preventing a certain ‘holocaust’ (The Daily News, 26 August 2010; The Ministry of Defence (defence.lk), 25 August 2010). Thereafter, he had said the following too: that there was a need for an international protocol to deal with Armed Forces engaged in fighting terrorism with non-State actors and that ‘many of the Rules of War and International Humanitarian Laws were based on the assumption that the warring parties were conventional armies of states but in Sri Lanka’s case the LTTE had totally disregarded those laws and…

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Where do they go from here?

On our way to the first scheduled hearing of Northern Muslims who were expelled by the LTTE in 1990, we spotted a group of men working hard out in the open, under the midday sun, and we stopped to have a conversation with them. Eight days earlier they had made their way from Puttalam to Marichchakatty with the goal of initiating the ‘journey home’ after the expulsion almost two decades ago.  Happy to leave their landless status in Puttalam and their livelihood as daily wage laborers, they were looking forward to reclaiming their lost lives as farmers and fishermen in their native villages. Although the end of the war heralded a new era and sparked hope of ‘returning home’ the people are caught in a quagmire of challenges and obstacles. The absence of permanent structures and conditions conducive to living has compelled the women—their wives and daughters– to restrict themselves to temporary visits. The distressing lives of the displaced indicate…

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In conversation with Tissa Jayatilaka

Interview III – Tissa Jayathilaka from Young Asia Television on Vimeo. In this interview, Tissa Jayatilaka speaks about the Ceylon of his childhood and the experience of being part of the last batch of students enrolled at the University of Ceylon. Tissa also talks about the tumultuous period during the 1970s, the roots of the conflict and flags the opportunities as well as challenges facing post-war Sri Lanka. Finally, Tissa speaks of academia, literature and his experience as one of the first members of the Council for Liberal Democracy, a think-tank that was founded in 1981, and of his friendship with Dr. Chanaka Amaratunga, who was the founder of the Council for Liberal Democracy and the Liberal Party of Sri Lanka. Tissa also flags the concerns with liberalism in Sri Lanka and the liberal democratic movement. Tissa contributed to the special edition on Chanaka Amaratunga compiled and published on-line by Groundviews. His article can be read here. Repost This Article

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  • 22 Aug, 2010
  • 7 Comments
  • Sport

THE RANDIV-SEHWAG AFFAIR: MISTAKING THE WOOD FOR THE TREES

Professor Michael Roberts, in a letter to the editor of The Island, has raised a matter of moral philosophy with regard to the controversy over Suraj Randiv’s deliberate no ball at Dambulla this week in an attempt to denude Virender Sehwag of his century, and the role of Tillekeratne Dilshan in it. Which is worse, he asks, denying a batsman his century by deliberately bowling a no ball, or the widespread practice of making cynically false appeals? His answer to this question is not in doubt: it is the latter, as practiced by the malevolent Australians and South Africans. No one disagrees with the proposition that the practice, not confined to the Australians or the South Africans, of making sustained appeals by a fielding side with the intention of pressuring umpires into wrong decisions is an awful distortion of the spirit of the game. We can also agree that the mixture of verbal intimidation against opponents and ingratiating badinage with…

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  • 19 Aug, 2010
  • 5 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Development

Feature article: Who Speaks for Small Farmers, Earthworms and Cow Dung?

Ray Wijewardene on the set of Sri Lanka 2048 show - June 2008

The late Ray Wijewardene in conversation with Nalaka Gunawardene Sri Lanka 2048 panel on Living with Climate Change – Ray Wijewardene is second from right [Authors note: Dr Philip Revatha (Ray) Wijewardene, who passed away on August 18 aged 86, spent a lifetime being unpigeonholeable – which won him many admirers and a few detractors. Despite being an accomplished engineer, aviator, inventor and Olympian, he chose to introduce himself as a farmer and mechanic ‘who still got his hands dirty’. Unpretentious and always enthusiastic, he was one man who somehow managed to have his head (literally) in the clouds and his feet firmly on the ground. Ray’s multi-faceted career blended many disciplines and pursuits. At Cambridge University, he studied three branches of engineering — aeronautical, mechanical and agricultural. He also earned a masters degree in business administration from the Harvard Business School, and later received honorary degrees from the UK and Sri Lanka. He was Chancellor of the Sri Lanka’s…

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In conversation with Prof. Sumanasiri Liyanage

Prof. Sumanasiri Liyanage, who has written to Groundviews regularly, teaches political economy at the University of Peradeniya, is a well-known political analyst, columnist and on the Board of the South Asia Peace Institute (SAPI). We began our short conversation with the crisis facing the main opposition party in Sri Lanka, the United National Party, flagging serious issues others on this site like Dayapala Thiranagama have also noted. Prof. Liyanage’s critique of the party stems from his observation that in recent years it has lost sight of a political party’s raison d’être – the capture of political power as opposed to issue based advocacy best suited for NGOs. We also spoke about the demise of Mangala Samaraweera’s Third Way politics, and the end of the SLFP Mahajana wing after Mr. Samaraweera recently joined the UNP. I noted that many commentators, including those like Publius on Groundviews, who hailed Mr. Samaraweera’s vision at the time , now failed to ask what went wrong…

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  • 17 Aug, 2010
  • 7 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Politics and Governance

The UNP’s Leadership Crisis: An Individual Conflict with Catastrophic Prospects or Redefinition of Current Political Tasks

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Image courtesy Transcurrents Introduction The current crisis in the UNP has thrown its grassroots supporters into a sense of hopelessness and disappointment about the future of the party. No political party can afford to let itself disintegrate and disappear from the political stage. If the present crisis is not resolved, it leaves behind a power vacuum and renders whole section of society unrepresented. The UNP’s disunity has already undermined its power, a weakening that would be compounded by a hemorrhaging of its supporters. Throughout its political journey into maturity and beyond, the UNP has always been able to attract ideologically and politically different individuals and social groups to face dramatic changes in the country’s political climate. From Philip Gunawardane a pioneering traditional Marxist and his MEP, in the 1960’s to the JVP more recently the UNP has demonstrated its ability to lure into their ranks, groups and individuals from widely differing political backgrounds. They made electoral pacts with the UNP…

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Strange proposals and broken promises: Constitutional reform in Sri Lanka

We last featured Rohan Edrisinha in February, just after the Presidential election on 26th January. Rohan, who lectures at the Law Faculty, University of Colombo and also a Director at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, at the time flagged serious concerns over the implementation of the 13th and 17th Amendments, as well as the tragic irrelevance of the APRC in the process of constitutional reform. These are also issues flagged in this video, where Rohan expresses his impatience with ideas such as the post of an Executive Prime Minister, which he notes is not just confusing, but dangerous to boot since it actually enhances the powers of the President. Lamenting the inability of the UNP to come up with any viable constitutional reform proposals, Rohan also flags the dilemma of Tamil political parties in parliament and the future of power-sharing in Sri Lanka. The ‘final report’ of the APRC, first published on Groundviews, is also discussed. Rohan ends on a…

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  • 11 Aug, 2010
  • 5 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Media and Communications

Open letter to Editors of Daily Mirror and Daily Mirror Online on violation of media ethics and the reinvention of Sri Lanka’s geography

[Editors note: We reproduce below two open letters sent to the Editors of the Daily Mirror and Daily Mirror online respectively. The letters flag significant concerns over a marked lack of professionalism and violation of established media ethics by both the online and print versions of the newspaper. The letters are published for any responses that either of the Editors wish to send to Groundviews, and for others to critically engage with in what we feel is a vital and necessary debate on mainstream media standards in post-war Sri Lanka. The author of the two letters blogs at http://electra.blogsome.com.] ### Letter to Editor of Daily Mirror Dear Ms. Liyanaarachi, As the Editor of the Daily Mirror, I wish to bring to your attention an article published both online and in print on 31st July titled “Re-awakening Vavuniya and offering hope…” I have only read this article online, published at the following web address:http://www.dailymirror.lk/print/index.php/features/139-feature/17154.html. Upon reading it, there was something so…

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The End of Displacement in Sri Lanka?

In June 2010 the Minister for Resettlement, Milroy Fernando stated that there were 60,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka and that the Government would resettle them by August 2010. With some 30,000 IDPs remaining in Menik Farm at the end of July it would not be impossible for the Government to close the camp down and meet this self-imposed deadline. With the movement of these IDPs it would not be too unexpected if the Government was to announce that there are no more IDPs in Sri Lanka. It would also not come as too big a surprise if the Government would phase out the Resettlement Ministry, as a part of the expected cabinet re-shuffle when the President assumes his second term in November 2010. As with the closure of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, following the April Parliamentary Election, the Government would be sending a clear signal that it no longer sees this issue as…

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Rajapaksa dynasty doing as they please in Sri Lanka

The story about Minister Mervyn Silva tying a Samurdhi Officer to a tree as punishment for not participating in a dengue prevention programme in the Kelaniya district was bad enough. The statement made by the UPFA General Secretary, Susil Premajayantha that the party or the government is not responsible for the actions of Minister Mervyn Silva opens up far more serious issues.   What we can infer from what the UPFA General Secretary said, is that neither the UPFA nor the government has any control over its Ministers.  The pertinent question then is:  who is in control? Surely,  we not are supposed to believe that the Cabinet of Ministers act as individuals and are not accountable to anyone in the government? Minister Premajayantha consciously or unconsciously has just revealed the true state of affairs in Sri Lanka under the Rajapakse regime.  And the state of affairs simply is that anyone who has the goodwill of the Rajapakse dynasty can pretty much do as they please.  Everyone else had…

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A homophobic Editorial: Professional negligence or genuine belief?

Photo courtesy the Daily Mirror’s febrile imagination On the 29th of July 2010 I read a strange and badly written editorial that appeared in the Daily Mirror newspaper. To put it mildly, the editorial was a diatribe against the so-called recent trend of ‘persuading’ citizens to become gay. It demonstrated an appalling lack of good judgment to believe that anyone can be persuaded to change his or her sexual orientation. What offended me most was the editor’s charge that there is a hidden agenda by certain groups and individuals to ‘rope in a few dozens of unsuspecting leading personalities in society to their clubs.’ It almost sounded like medieval sorcery. The outrageously homophobic slant of the Editor reflects an enduring insensitivity, bordering on outright violence towards homosexual identities and concerns in our society. Bizarrely, given the editorials published in the same newspaper in the recent past regarding Pride Week, one wonder’s why and to what end the Daily Mirror’s take…

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Radical Reforms in Sri Lanka: Realities we are afraid of?

Enough conceptual theories are produced and articulated on the need and urgency of the political power sharing in Sri Lanka. Avoiding the torturous repetition and gauging the current diminishing appreciation for any theoretical discourse or appetite for challenging conceptual explanations, we suggest the following five points abstract as a summary of recommendation for a new constitutional re-arrangement for a stable/unitary, yet democratic and modern Sri Lanka Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka 2015 Structure of Administration Confirm the State of Sri Lanka as a unitary state Constitutionalize the devolution of political and administration powers to 5 recognised Provinces Northern Province Eastern Province Central Province Southern Western (From Puttalam to Kalutara) Southern Province and 3 Special Zones ( under direct Prime Minister rule) Colombo District Kandy District (Total rule under Buddhist laws and Sangha leadership) Kalmunai/Sammanturai (with special emphasis on Muslim rights) Nature of the governance Return to an executive Prime Minister system reporting to the parliament for a 5 year term…

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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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