Long Reads

Long Reads brings to Groundviews long-form journalism found in publications such as Foreign Policy, The New Yorker and the New York Times. This section, inspired by Longreads, offers more in-depth deliberation on key issues covered on Groundviews.

THE SRI LANKAN REPUBLIC AT FORTY: REFLECTIONS ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL PAST AND PRESENT

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Image courtesy Daily News Forty years ago this week, at the auspicious time of 12:34 p.m. at the Navarangahala on 22nd May 1972, a new constitution was signed into law, creating the Republic of Sri Lanka. This was the first time in the history of the island that the republican form of state was established, discounting the period under which parts of the littoral were controlled by the Dutch East India Company during the time the Netherlands were a confederated republic. Given that the political history of the island spans over two millennia from its mytho-historical origins, four decades might not seem like a long time. But looking back to 1970-72, the country and the world in which the first republican constitution was created seems very different from the present, although the continuing resonance of many of the dominant themes of that era are still felt in today’s Sri Lanka. In the Third World, it was the epoch of anti-colonialism…

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Women Left Behind: Truth Commissioning in Sri Lanka

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A mother displaying the photographs of his sons which are missing during the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) session in Trincomalee, December, 3-5, 2010. Photo courtesy Centre for Human Rights The power and promise of national exercises like the LLRC lie in the way that they can access the voices of those who have not traditionally been heard, and use them to build a more representative and inclusive collective memory. Yet for Sri Lanka’s Tamil women, the LLRC simply reaffirms bad old habits, writes Jo Baker [i] In the lead up to the release of the report by Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), strong concerns have been publicly raised about the value of a process that aims to build a clear picture of the conflict, without fully including or representing those who were most directly affected. This has led to important questions regarding who has been heard, how their concerns have been addressed, and whether they will…

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Turning Former LTTE Personnel into Sri Lankan Citizens?

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Editors note: Also read a response to this article by Valkryie, titled Response to Michael Roberts’ ‘Turning Former LTTE Personnel into Sri Lankan Citizens?’] Whatever the death toll during the last stages of Eelam War IV in 2009 the official government data in that year acknowledged that 11,696 (9078 male and 2024 female)[i] of those who survived had identified themselves or been identified as members of the LTTE — whether combatants or active functionaries. There were others who had been arrested elsewhere in the island (that is beyond the battlefields), often on flimsy evidence, in the years 2006-09. Muralidhar Reddy stresses that “once bracketed in the category of a combatant, irrespective of the degree of their involvement in the war, there was no mechanism for those detained to prove their innocence.”[ii] In parenthesis let me add that grapevine information from Tamil sources indicate that in April-May 2009 quite a few Tigers seem to have successfully merged themselves with the population that was…

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War Crimes Investigations in Sri Lanka: An Unpopular View

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“In trying to do good, we have been living beyond our moral resources and have fallen into hypocrisy and self-righteousness” — William V. Cannon, commenting on the Vietnam War, New York Times, February 6, 1966 “Conquer the angry man by love, Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness. Conquer the miser with generosity. Conquer the liar with truth.” — The Dhammapada p. 223 Despite the best efforts of the Sri Lankan government, the claim that Sri Lanka is a “Killing Field” is fast becoming a social and political rallying point for diverse interest groups. Allegations of government war crimes outlined in the Darusman Report, the now infamous Channel 4 video, and the case filed by Tamils against Genocide (TAG) with the Department of Justice in the United States, as well as electronic reports published across the world have by now overshadowed the victory over the LTTE. The government’s uncompromising resistance to investigate war crime allegations by any external body could turn…

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The absence of Patriotism, Pluralism and Cosmopolitanism: ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ in retrospection

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ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS Former Sri Lankan child soldier Warnakulasuriya Anthony Sunil Rexy (right) laughs with other inmates as they play earlier this month at a government rehabilitation center in Ambepussa. Original in The Washington Times. The TV programme entitled Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, produced by Channel 4 of the UK, sparked substantial debate and discussion in every strata of interest on Sri Lanka, including the realms of high politics and diplomacy, national an international journalism, the non-governmental sector and the programme carried sufficient weight to trigger a renewed interest on Sri Lankan affairs in the West – which – due to the absence of key strategic interests in Sri Lanka, does not generally have a place in Western foreign policy agendas. While the Government of Sri Lanka condemned the programme as false and criticised its intent at causing international embarrassment to Sri Lanka, Western governments reiterated their common request that Sri Lanka should seriously investigate the allegations of crimes of…

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Identities And Borders In South Asia: A View From The Left

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Partition, 1947, courtesy The Hindu Introduction From the partition of British India to the civil war in Sri Lanka, the attempt to impose national borders in accordance with ethnic, linguistic or religious identities in South Asia has spawned civil wars and crimes against humanity, resulting in almost unimaginable suffering and bloodshed. This is all the more preposterous in a region where migration and the mixing of peoples and cultures have been occurring from time immemorial. The Left potentially has a conceptual and theoretical framework which would allow it to propose solutions to these conflicts, yet flawed interpretations of ‘the right to self-determination’ have led many on the Left to compound the problems instead. A different interpretation suggests that the key goals should be less violence and more democracy, and taking down barriers between peoples rather than erecting more and more of them. The birth of India and Pakistan It is surely a paradox that a non-violent movement in India for…

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Notes on Possibilities after the UN Report: Including Nationalism and ‘The Geopolitics of Emotion’

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Photo courtesy Deborah Philip It was my sense after May 18, 2009 when the LTTE was defeated that Sri Lanka was missing an opportunity to redefine itself as part of a kinder, gentler, global community. Instead it heightened nationalist discourse, extended emergency rule, surveillance and militarization, and devised new forms of censorship. Sri Lanka missed the opportunity to become one of South Asia’s more enlightened nations by not reaching out to one of its more battered and war-scarred communities after 18/09.  The UN report has returned us to that moment, and if intelligently and constructively used may help us explore roads not taken, toward a better, brighter and kinder future for all its citizens. Political philosopher Judith Butler wrote after 9/11 and the attacks on the twin towers in New York City in a book titled: Precarious Life: “that we can be injured, that others can be injured, that we are subject to death at the whim of the other,…

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Educating the Soul, the Spirit and then the Mind

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Photo courtesy The Schools Project Background Over the years, I have spent much time with children and teachers in schools running leadership programs not only in Sri Lanka, but also in Canada, the Indian subcontinent and in Africa where I do a  simple exercise on their Hopes & Fears, and I am always moved by, especially the fears children have for their future.   They realize that they are coming out into an angry, uncertain world in social and environmental turmoil.   Of course they have hope, yet many feel insecure and ill equipped to meet these challenges. This is not surprising as globally, we are yet teaching children as if the world out there is impersonal and separate from them.   There is not much in it to increase self-awareness, mindfulness, self-reflection, emotional intelligence and social skills.  It is yet about knowledge and scientific discovery, even then the system has not yet figured out how to teach them, for instance, the uncertainty…

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A Home for Books

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Original photo courtesy Tarika Wickremeratne For as long as I can remember we have had books in the house. To my child’s eye it seemed that every room was spilling over with books. Books in bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen and even bathroom. Most of the books belonged to my father – his study held his law books and his other books were distributed among the other rooms – Dictionaries (the love of his life), classics, spirituality, fiction, art etc. They were housed in various book cupboards, either inherited from his parents or bought from various furniture auctions held on Saturdays and that were common enough during the 60s and 70s. Most of them were of the art deco style, glass fronted wooden cupboards with an abstract wooden design against the glass, others were plain and serviceable. If the book cupboards had keys they were never locked. We were never told which books we could or couldn’t read and…

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Small Country Diplomacy

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Bosom buddies, Libya’s Qadaffi and Sri Lanka’s President, courtesy Sunday Times Of late there have been several critical comments levied against the manner in which Sri Lanka has conducted her diplomatic relations.  Traditional alliances with the Western world have become somewhat stilted, new alliances have been forged, while fortunately the tempo of our relations with the SAARC countries, our regional neighbours, have remained stable.  The shifts in the balance of power relations have created a certain amount of suspicion and hostility among the Western Powers.  The entry of China, the bête noir of India, has also introduced heightened alertness, but not disharmony into the Indo- Lanka relations.  Sri Lanka needs to fine tune her diplomatic skills as we are dependent on the West for much of our trade, financial aid and investments as much as we are on India, especially with the need to keep the regional balance. Some of the charged atmosphere in Sri Lanka’s international relations, have not…

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Around the World in 32 Years: A Mini-Memoir

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[Editors note: Emil van der Poorten is a regular columnist in the Sri Lanka media. His short article in the Edmonton Journal (Violence still plagues my Sri Lankan homeland) prompted an invitation to contribute a more fuller account of his life to Groundviews. Emil's story and his many adventures with politics recounted here with an acerbic wit offer unique insights into political figures and events that have shaped our lives.] Looking through the scraps of memorabilia from the time prior to my departure to Canada and then through my Canadian clippings to those accumulated in Sri Lanka since my return was a fascinating and nostalgic experience that I would not have indulged in without the stimulus of having to write this piece for “Long Reads” in Groundviews. The exercise was not unlike browsing through old diaries, except the material in those scrapbooks was more akin to snapshots from a lifetime spent in significantly different circumstances in two very different parts…

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Lanka @ 63: The ‘military business model’ of post-war economic development

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On 4 February, Sri Lanka celebrated its 63rd birthday. After nearly three decades of armed conflict, it is now one of Southasia’s calmest and fastest-growing countries. Its social indicators, apart from the northeast zone, remain the best in the region, and its strategic location is inviting investments from both Asian giants, China and India. Its stock markets are booming, its growth rate bouncing at around eight percent, and tourists are back to enjoy sun, sand, sea, and the island’s natural beauty. Along with big sister India, Lanka is the only other country in the South Asian region with unbroken if rather tattered democracy since independence from the British Raj in 1948, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently congratulated the government of Sri Lanka when it released a Standby Agreement (SBA) loan tranche despite the high ratio of public debt to GDP. As many economists know, however, stock-market booms do not necessarily correlate with socio-economic peace, equity and justice, or…

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Long Form journalism: An invitation to contribute

As many regular readers and commentators on this site know, in January Groundviews launched the Long Reads section. The print media industry in Sri Lanka, for economic and political reasons, does not afford a space for compelling essays on society, politics, the arts, culture, religiosity, literature and other topics. Long Reads on Groundviews aims to provide a platform for serious, vibrant essayists to publish their writing. Interestingly, long form journalism is going through something of a revival online. The Atavist, a new application for the iPhone / iPad is free to download, but users have to buy essays that are specifically geared for the devices, incorporating not just text, but audio, photography and video as well. Long Reads, a tremendously interesting website that curates essays from many sources on the web, including mainstream print media in the West, serves as the inspiration for GV’s Long Reads section. Then there’s the recently announced Readability, offering a way to both support essayists…

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Red Lines and Historical Realism

[Editors note: On the invitation of the Editors of Groundviews, this is a response to Some reflections on reading Dayan Jayatilleka and Dharmeratnam Sivaram (Taraki) by Anapayan, strictly and solely in Dr. Jayatilleka's capacity as Honorary Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.] “Revolution is having a sense of the historical moment…” – Fidel Castro May 1, 2000 “Moreover the LTTE had given him [President Rajapaksa] absolutely no breathing space after his inauguration before beginning to take out convoys and soldiers.” –  Nick Burns, US Under-Secretary of State, 23/01 /2006, the Afterposten Wikileaks 34 cables dump Does the Thirty Years War which ended in May ’09 function as a dead planet whose light reaches us later as a star that illumines our discussions and guides our way, or do wars cast shadows in which we inevitably live and debate till they dissipate? Or may we mix these metaphors, since the reality is a fusion? Perhaps the…

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Some reflections on reading Dayan Jayatilleka and Dharmeratnam Sivaram (Taraki)

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[Editors note: A response to this article by Dr. Jayatilleka can be read here.] “If the LTTE were not here, we would all be fucked” – D. Sivaram1 The discourse on Sri Lankan ethnic crisis has always been distracted by sideshows of political antics from both sides of the ethnic divide.  The recent Oxford Union ‘fiasco’ is one among them. People use the narratives – The triumphalist Tamil diaspora, the defeated Mahinda Rajapaksa and the West’s conspiracy against Sri Lanka – appropriate for their ‘ideological’ positions; being confined to an intellectual and cognitive comfort zone is preferred than confronting the reality which is full of cacophony. Few years ago, we saw the drama about Maniraasakulam LTTE base in Trincomalee – Then UNF government, president Chandrika Kumaratunga, LTTE, SLMM, politicians, monks, NGOs and media, especially the Sunday Times – every section of the society took part in that orgy of filibustering. The Sunday Times almost declared war on Center for Policy…

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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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