Archive for November, 2010

Wikileaks on Sri Lanka: A breakdown and implications

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Updated 2.15pm, 30th November with added analysis of tags “The first is that, in Sri Lanka, it would never be possible for any one to play “Julian Assange” and dare face an open media briefing in Colombo, to justify his or her claims on war crimes and torture. Right or wrong, excessive or not, that “democracy” is nowhere within the shores of Sri Lanka and would not be, for many decades to come. There is also no possibility of any lawyer, any public litigant, requesting Courts to “order” relevant authorities to begin investigations into allegations of crimes committed during war, as in Britain. Relevance if any on such democratic practices, is almost naught.” – From WikiLeaks to WikiLanka: War Is Definitely Savage Though “Accusations” Differ, Kusal Perera The unprecedented release of US diplomatic cables (i.e. confidential briefings) by Wikileaks is, at the time of writing this, only just making it to global news media. Called Cablegate by Wikileaks (which was…

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Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Second-Term: A New Beginning?

When the LTTE showed, consistently and convincingly, that it did not understand the language of ‘peace’, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, correctly, turned to a language that the LTTE understood well; ‘war’. All other options were exhausted, and any option, other than the granting of a separate Tamil Eelam State, was bound to fail because what the LTTE wanted was simply that: a separate State. The most significant political achievement of President Mahinda Rajapaksa during his tenure as President of Sri Lanka (since 2005) then, was the indubitable and unprecedented leadership he gave to ensure the defeat of the LTTE. While there were many others who contributed to this in large measure, the armed conflict could not have been successfully concluded in the absence of President Rajapaksa’s leadership. It is with reference to this fact that any assessment of President Rajapaksa should commence, since it is an achievement that cannot be belittled by any means, given the old predominant view that the…

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A review of the Gaza Monologues

Photo courtesy of Ruvin de Silva , 2010 ‘I feel that all of Gaza is sitting on moving sands. Any madness you can imagine can happen in a second in this place, and a lot of dreams may come true too. It’s a strange city with no logic.’ Ahmad, 1993, Al Wehda Street, Gaza On certain occasions, one must excuse the ardour of overtly political theatre; it is after all a medium for exploring the redoubtable and there is that unfortunate and conspicuous sense of hopelessness in highly charged theatre that strives to speak on behalf of the oppressed, victimized and weak. One would have expected a one-sided narrative that disregarded the culpability of both sides for the instigation of conflict. The Gaza Monologues did not satisfy that expectation. In fact, the production avoided the zealous evocations and inevitable distortions of truth that are so innate to any political discourse on the matter of Israel and Palestine. Let’s not be…

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  • 28 Nov, 2010
  • 89 Comments
  • Uncategorized

The Big Lie

Marx once said that “in all ideology”… “men and their circumstances appear upside down as in a camera obscura”. Professor Charles P. Sarvan thinks that the Sinhalese are fascists or pro-fascist. Writing in a Colombo paper last Sunday (‘The Sinhalese: Blasé!’ Nov 21st, 2010), and earlier in a British publication called Confluence last May, Sarvan explicitly attempts to portray the Sinhala people as similar to the Germans who supported Nazism. Though the choice of the photograph accompanying last Sunday’s article may not have been the good professor’s personal pick, the piece is aptly illustrated — given the content and argument- with but a single picture, that of Adolf Hitler. Get the picture? (Or as Tarzie Vittachi’s quip went, “get the poto”?) There may be much wrong with Sinhala society, but if any community on the island bears a resemblance to German society in its compliance with fascism it is surely not the Sinhalese. The editor of the Penguin/Pelican Reader’s Guide…

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  • 26 Nov, 2010
  • 0 Comment
  • Peace and Conflict

Economic prospects in post-war Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa (L) shakes hands with Reuters Editor for South Asia Duncan Pitcairn (R) as the Governor of Sri Lanka’s Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal looks on at a Thomson Reuters forum to discuss Sri Lanka’s post-war economic rebirth in Colombo November 26, 2010. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte Earlier this evening in Colombo, Reuters hosted a panel discussion with Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal And Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Sri Lanka’s post-war economic prospects. Media has often reported that the Rajapaksa’s control over 75% of Sri Lanka’s budget. When asked this in the past, Gotabaya’s demeanour has not been the most diplomatic and collected. This evening however, both he and the Central Bank Governor were in calm control, addressing a number of issues related to economic development. Perhaps because of inadequate awareness and promotion of the live webcast of the event, Groundviews was the sole voice that posed a number of pointed comments and questions to the…

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  • 26 Nov, 2010
  • 3 Comments
  • Peace and Conflict

If you cannot protect your people, why should the sun rise on your country?

Missing for over 300 days On 25th November, far away from my motherland, I rang Sandya Eknaligoda to ask her, How are you? Yesterday was the 300th day that her loving husband has been missing. And for all Sri Lankans, one of our best cartoonists, writers, journalists, painters and activists has been missing for 300 days. Sandya told me that a group of about 60 people met yesterday at the Temple of the Innocents with lotus flowers and oil lamps to do a simple ritual for Prageeth. This little monument in front of the Parliament was commissioned by Chandrika Kumaranathunga  Bandaranayake’s government, designed and built by the artist, Jagath Weerasinghe, to remember victims of the late 80s/early 90s Southern insurgency. It had been long neglected, its meaning forgotten.  Soldiers, whose job is to protect the coming and going Parliamentarians, had been using it as a place to piss. But friends cleaned it up and made it the place to be together…

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  • 25 Nov, 2010
  • 1 Comment
  • Uncategorized

Growing social tension in Sri Lanka: The limits of development sans democracy?

Photos courtesy Vikalpa. Sri Lanka’s Ports and Aviation Ministry earlier this year said it would purchase two seaplanes from Canada to boot the tourism industry in the country. As noted in the media, “…the Ministry plans to use 12 inland lakes and waterways including Beira Lake, Victoria reservoir, Tisa Wewa, Parakrama Samudraya as destinations. In addition a service from Negombo lagoon to various parts of the country has been planned.” What was not mentioned in these media reports was that these plans for tourism development were drawn up without any consultation with the population in and around the areas mentioned. In the case of Negombo, this meant fishermen who relied on the lagoon’s crustaceans and fish for their livelihood. It is precisely this that was placed at risk, because the dredging of the lagoon – to make it fit for seaplanes – would have devastated the lagoon’s marine ecosystem. As Father Sarath Iddamalgoda notes in this video captured by Vikalpa,…

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REVALUATING THE RAJAPAKSE PRESIDENCY

If President Rajapakse should come in for a bit of stick, it is not for the overall record of his just completed first term and the dawn of his second. If anyone deserved it for performance and achievement, it is surely him. An evaluation of a political leader must be historically concrete. What was the context in which he/she assumed power? What was the situation he/she inherited and what did he/she make of that inheritance? Did he/she improve the situation in respect of the central challenge or main problem, cause it to worsen, or remain unchanged? The evaluation must also factor in the actually available alternative to his/her leadership; how that alternative personality would have fared and at what cost. It often takes a critical outsider to register the authentic dimensions of the achievement of a distant nation and its leader. Though they contributed negatively to the emergence of that challenge, how many of Mahinda Rajapakse’s post- Independence predecessors prevailed…

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  • 20 Nov, 2010
  • 1 Comment
  • Arts and Theatre,
    Colombo,
    Features,
    Vavuniya

The Gaza Monologues: An interview with Ruhanie Perera and Jake Oorloff

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[Editors note: Also see A review of the Gaza Monologues for video footage from and a review of the production.] Ruhanie Perera and Jake Oorloff co-created Floating Space in 2007. Gaza Monologues was their latest production, running to packed houses and good reviews recently in Colombo. As noted on the  group’s blog, Floating Space a theatre company that is committed to experimentation, Floating Space is inspired by the unconventional and shared experiences in performance. Its focus is to create and produce performance, with the objective of exploring the possibilities of theatre in terms of form, style, space, approach and purpose. Groundviews interviewed Ruhanie and Jake to find out more about the production, their future and theatre in Sri Lanka. A review of the production will be posted on Groundviews soon. Stills from a video recording of the performance. Repost This Article

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Record-breaking rice cakes, but at what cost?

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Photo of kiri bath courtesy le sauce Most performances of Dhananjaya Karunarathne’s brilliant script Last Bus Eke Kathawa (The Story of the Last Bus) are memorable not just because of the acting, but also because the audience becomes, without at first knowing it, part of the theatre. Chewing gum or boiled sweets are distributed to the audience before a performance begins. Most take one. Some take a lot. Everyone takes a bite. It is only at the dénouement of the play that the deeply troubling story behind the sweets is revealed. Much like Karunarathne’s script, those who take one bite, or many from the world’s biggest rice cake (kiri bath) in Colombo today may come to realise that what they have eaten into is actually an outrageous obscenity. Let get the facts. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), as of September 2010, was feeding, 25,000 IDPs in camps 50,000 IDPs in host families 110,000 people on 6‐month return packages immediately following…

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“Chiran Jayathu” – “Aayubowewa”

Let all as citizens comprising the civil society of Sri Lanka, join together in unison and with one voice, in response to the earnest appeal made by Renton de Alwis in “Back to Basics” stating “Our President is taking on the next phase of his governance. There is so much more he has to do to guide this nation on. For that we must wish him well and more importantly, resolve that there is so much each of us as individuals and as one big family of 20 million people can and must do, to help ourselves” and wish H.E. the President on his birthday and assumption of his second term of office saying “Chiran Jayathu” and “Aayubowewa”, Happy Birthday and All the Very Best, thus expressing sincere appreciation of his leadership and governance of the past and also for the expected delivery in the future as supported by the following: “I am proud to announce that my country has…

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These Sri Lankan whores! Serve them right!

Name and shame the whores that act in pornographic films online. Their seedy grainy stuck-between-teeth pictures plastered across newspapers will be the deterrent for other whores who have the same idea. Designate parks for young people to canoodle in (but ensure someone watches over the canoodlers for we don’t want them to canoodle with naked noodles, for that would be a travesty of our cultural norms and mores). Our children are getting abused. Our teenagers are getting pregnant. But we don’t need sex education. This is a Western concept. “If we promote our culture and practice the morals norms and values there is no need for sex education.” These news stories among others, including sex education in international schools, these last few weeks have been interesting for us who work in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights. If we do not pursue the discussion though, discussions around sex in the media could lend to superficial reactions that…

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Nation building post war

Written to mark the forthcoming publication of Challenges for Nation Building: Priorities for Sustainability and Inclusivity, Edited by Gnana Moonesinghe We are no closer to nation building post war than we were during it, and before it. More accurately, we are no closer to the recognition that nation building needs to embrace the possibility, and arguably, desirability, of many nations in a State. This brings with it the complex challenge for a democracy to manage, based on the need for social cohesion, the centripetal and centrifugal forces of nation building – an enduring contest between inclusion and exclusion. These challenges can be in the domain of ideas, or they can be in the theatres of war, but they never go away. Nation building’s telos is not some nirvana of harmonious co-existence. It is a process, and like any other that involves history, emotions and multitudes of peoples, it will always be messy. And yet, how is it that we have…

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THE LLRC AND COMPLAINTS OF DISAPPEARANCES OF PERSONS

It was reported in the newspapers a few days ago that  nearly a thousand individuals had come forward to make representations  to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission  during its sessions in  Jaffna.  The report said that a majority of them  are  persons seeking the help of the LLRC to  find their sons and daughters who have disappeared during  and after  Eelam War  IV.  This has been the case even during the sittings of the LLRC  in other parts of the Northern Districts.  It appears that this is happening because many of   these  people  have not understood the  mandate of the Commission properly.  One cannot understand why  the LLRC itself does not want to tell those persons who flock to them  of their  limitations.    The Tamil  media in particular, is  giving wide publicity to  the  number of complaints of abductions  and disappearances being received by the Commission.  This has  prompted  more and more  victims of the numerous abductions…

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Response to S. L. Gunasekara’s article titled ‘Cardinal Errors’

‘Our lives begin to end the day we remain silent about things that matter’ - Dr Martin Luther King I feel compelled to defend the blasphemy committed through the article titled ‘Cardinal Errors’ (Island, 10th November, 2010) against holy Churchmen of the highest ranks who expressed their concerns in the interest of peace and reconciliation. It was a trying exercise not only to read but also to respond to such arguments. Although I was deeply provoked to respond in similar language, thankfully I managed to rise above it.  I address the following issues point by point: SLG: exhorting their flock to oppose or simply refuse to obey the orders of the LTTE’ Response: Is it a realistic proposition to have confronted the LTTE which violently resisted any opposition under the leadership of Prabhakaran. The church had no choice but to take a conciliatory stand in order to maintain a communication link with the LTTE who were young men formerly of their own…

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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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