Archive for the ‘Politics and Governance’

Reflections on Sri Lanka’s Post-Geneva Irrationality

68428136

Photo courtesy ISHARA S.KODIKARA, AFP/Getty Images via Chicago Tribune News One can understand to a certain extent the angst of some Sri Lankans over the injury caused to national pride by the ‘Geneva Resolution’ of March 2012. One can also understand the sense of frustration of certain others who hold the view that the Resolution does not go far enough to hold Sri Lanka’s feet closer to the fire. The effort of the present essay is to look for a way in between the two  above  points of view and explore a means by which Sri Lanka could salvage something from the wreck before all of us Sri Lankans go down. A brief look backwards to understand the way forward might be useful and helpful. So let us begin by doing so. If one avoids the pitfall of blind political loyalty or jingoism in surveying the mood of our country both in the run up to and after the Resolution No…

Continue reading »

Ask Ass. Sec. Robert Blake a question on Sri Lanka over Twitter

mahinda-oblake

Image courtesy Colombo Page Robert Blake is the Assistant Secretary, South And Central Asian Affairs at the US State Department and former Ambassador to Sri Lanka. The man likes cricket and our own Murali, and given his current portfolio, is a key figure in US-Sri Lanka relations post-war. He is currently taking questions on Twitter on US relations with South Asia. https://twitter.com/usembsl/status/192098700833726465 Through the hashtag #AskSCA, there are already a number of questions from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, but very few from Sri Lanka. We have posed four, based on the US Senate’s Committee On Foreign Relations report on Sri Lanka (SRI LANKA: RECHARTING U.S. STRATEGY AFTER THE WAR), published in December 2009, which has a number of important recommendations we’ve not heard about since. https://twitter.com/groundviews/status/192447985777520643 https://twitter.com/groundviews/status/192447995483140096 https://twitter.com/groundviews/status/192448006493192193 https://twitter.com/groundviews/status/192448015359934465 In addition to ours, @Apelankawe and @thrishantha have posed some interesting questions. https://twitter.com/thrishantha/status/190067440342933506 https://twitter.com/apelankawe/status/191882256841846786 https://twitter.com/apelankawe/status/191883208256790531 Till now, not a single mainstream media Twitter account in Sri Lanka, or even full time…

Continue reading »

A View from the Left Bank

jvp+protest

Image courtesy JDS Each generation brings its own collective formation and experience to the Left project. Each historical period produces its own Left or mutates the existing Left. An abiding failing of older leftists is to fall prey to two opposite responses to a newly emergent left, or a left born of different experiences at a different time. The older generation of leftists, be they activists or academics, cadres or commentators tend either to hail the new left as a proxy for their fantasies, or wag a finger at them for falling short of their (nostalgically recollected) standards and ideals. Both stances–idealisation or condemnation, romance or remonstrance– reflect the generation gap. Neither stance is realistic or helpful. The Sri Lankan Left consists of three players, listed here not in any order of importance: the old left within the ruling coalition, the JVP, the breakaway FSP (and sundry leftists grouped around it in the Jana Aragala Vyaparaya). This categorisation must not…

Continue reading »

Sri Lanka’s Census 2012: What should have been asked? What could have been done better?

Screen Shot 2012-04-17 at 3.34.23 PM

Conducting a census is an important activity for any country as the data gathered from it would serve as the foundation for policies, development related activities and future planning of not only government institutions but also non state actors such as academics, development and aid agencies. The idea behind collecting feedback on the 2012 Census in Sri Lanka is to identify the positive and negative aspects of the census, and to encourage discussion on how it can be improved without merely identifying the faults. This year’s census was held after 30 years and covered the entire island. The importance of this census and the data it gathered is obvious to us all. Feedback on Census 2012 was launched in late March. Some initial feedback from people who shared their comments via the site and also via email follow. Enumeration stage – Enumerators for the Census 2012 underwent a training whereby they were briefed on the questions in the data collection…

Continue reading »

A Vision for Our Nation

Siri Pada

Photo by the author There is a vision of our land that has persisted over three millennia and is ingrained in the heart and soul of every citizen. A vision of a land, resplendent, beautiful, safe from violence, disease and famine and a land where the tolerant and compassionate philosophy of the Buddha guides human interaction. But today, the ecomomic and political winds from without and within, seek to blow us further and further from this course. The future for our children develops into the proportions of a nightmare. We have brought mindless violence upon ourselves and upon the very land itself. From the top of Siri Pada to the coast in the four directions the nation grows increasingly barren. The rivers run our precious topsoil to the sea. The cities and industries turn the very air we breathe into poison. The cancer that has been released on the country as ‘mindless progress’ now visits our homes as cancers, emphysema,…

Continue reading »

The futility that is Omanthai: Post-war Sri Lanka’s reconciliation shortfalls

colombo_check_point

Image courtesy JDS Omanthai Checkpoint, 12.30am: As the conductor switches on the bright florescent lights inside the bus, the bus comes to an abrupt halt, jolting awake blurry-eyed passengers travelling from Jaffna to Colombo, who, in response to the instruction “okkomala bag arung eliyata bahinna…” (“Everyone, take all your bags and get off the bus…”), scramble around in search of their respective bags, still half asleep. Once having located their individual items of luggage, young and old alike, stumble out of the bus one after another and walk towards the takarung (metal sheet) shed, where males and females follow separate queues to have their bags checked by male and female army personnel, respectively. The checking too has now become so superficial and lackadaisical that it’s obvious it’s being conducted purely out of protocol, rather than as an actual security measure. Omanthai, having been one of the, if not, ‘the’ largest Government controlled checkpoint throughout the war, remains to date, more…

Continue reading »

Whose Arms Will Embrace You? The United States and the Beijing Consensus

China's President Hu shakes hands with Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sanya

China’s President Hu Jintao shakes hands with Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sanya, Hainan province, April 10, 2008. Image by Reuters, courtesy Transcurrents. The United States is increasingly playing a game of subtle communication in the international arena. I suspect we had a passing glimpse of this at the 19th Session of the Human Rights Council, which gathered in Geneva last month. The question is: who is the United States talking to and what is it trying to say? There has been much discussion about President Obama’s “Return to Asia” strategy, arising out of a 2009 speech during which he declared that as an Asia Pacific nation, the United States will seek to be more involved in the issues affecting the region. There has been an equally vibrant discussion in policy and scholarly circles about the so-called Beijing Consensus, a term used to describe the Chinese government’s embrace of capitalism, while remaining autocratic. It is to these nations who have…

Continue reading »

Restoring Government in Sri Lanka

sri-lanka-27feb12

Image courtesy Transcurrents If Sri Lanka is fast becoming a pariah state in the eyes of the world, it has nothing to do with the recent UNHRC Resolution. The writing has long been on the wall. As a nation, we are ruled by a group of men who seem to have nothing but contempt for the rule of law, let alone for truth in the public sphere. Violence and threats of violence against critics, the suppression of media freedom, extra-judicial killings, misplaced economic priorities and corruption on a scale that made even previous governments look clean, have become the order of the day. The minimal definition of government has to do with the rule of law: namely, that as a people we should be governed not by arbitrary fiat but by a system of laws to which the law-makers and law-enforcers themselves are accountable. The opposite of government is sovereign will, where the King/President decides what is “good for the…

Continue reading »

Latest victims of a heinous trend: Abduction of political activists Premakumar Gunaratnam and Dimuthu Attygalle

Untitled1

Political activists and leaders of the People’s Struggle Movement in Sri Lanka, Mr. Premakumar Gunaratnam[1] and Ms. Dimithu Attygalle[2] disappeared on 6th April 2012.  Prior to their disappearance both activists had been preparing for the first convention of the Frontline Socialist Party, a party formed by a dissident group from the opposition party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP – meaning People’s Liberation FRont). FSP party members had received credible information that both activists were under intense Government surveillance, shortly before their disappearance. There is currently no information regarding their fate or whereabouts. Mr. Gunaratnam was a key leader of the People’s Struggle Movement (PSM) and Ms. Attygalle was the Secretary for Women’s and International affairs of the organization, which was a forerunner to the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP). Mr. Gunaratnam had been  instrumental in forming the FSP which was due to be launched officially on 9th April 2012 and he was expected to be appointed as its head.  The PSM has…

Continue reading »

Menik Farm after the cyclone: The continuing misery of IDPs

Menik Farm3

After a punishingly hot day, the skies seemed to provide some relief to the residents of Chettikulam as they opened to release heavy showers during the early evening of Saturday, March 31st. However, what was welcomed as a break from the unending heat by those ensconced in sturdy houses simultaneously proved to be a torment for the 6,022[1] residents in the Menik Farm IDP camps a few kilometres outside of town. Reports of injuries and the destruction of homes in the camps started coming in shortly after the 30 minute shower dissipated. We rushed to the Chettikulam hospital in the Vavuniya district and were greeted with the sight of ambulance after ambulance pulling in, unloading an unfortunate array of patients: an elderly man too weak to walk who has to be taken in with a wheelchair, another woman in a blue nightgown with two young children and another who has been cut on the head. She told us that the…

Continue reading »

Immigration Anxiety and Ruminations on Thought Police

15913-2011-07-28-ruka

I have always loved international travel, but I have always hated the “immigration” process, except for the part where I get my passport stamped. I realize what I have just written is not entirely rational since it’s hard to have foreign travel without “immigration,” but people are not always rational. Even when doing nothing wrong, a profound sense of anxiety and apprehension wash over me as I hand my passport to an immigration official. After all, that person is the only thing standing between me and a foreign country—where I can be exposed to new thoughts, practices, mores, traditions and more. Immigration officials stand between me and learning, humility or adventure, matters I do not take lightly. This is why I was especially nervous about applying for a tourist visa using Sri Lanka’s Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) system. While not hugely important, I have said and done things that certain State officials in Sri Lanka might not appreciate. The last…

Continue reading »

In conversation with Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu: The resolution in Geneva and its discontents

Screen Shot 2012-03-29 at 7.12.13 AM

Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu is the Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, the institutional anchor of Groundviews. He is today one of three human rights defenders senior government ministers consider traitors and would like to, as in ancient times, kill, and, inter alia, break the limbs of. Though Sri Lanka’s foreign minister distanced himself from these remarks, the President and his brother, the all-powerful Secretary of Defence, have not expressed a single word of condemnation, or distanced themselves from the minister’s comments, who has openly and repeatedly said he derives his legitimacy from the Rajapaksa’s. Much of this hate and harm directed against Dr. Saravanamuttu and other key human rights defenders of late has been on account of their participation at the recently concluded 19th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, and in particular, supporting a US sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka. There hasn’t been much informed debate and discussion within Sri Lanka on the contents and genesis…

Continue reading »

The Geneva II debacle

6934830975_dafae4e928_b

Photo courtesy Vikalpa, from protest against US resolution in Colombo, 27 February 2012 The US-sponsored resolution at the UNHRC had to be defeated. It was not. 24 in favour, 15 against, 8 abstained. Hearts are broken, glasses are shattered, the ‘gods’ have ignored our prayers, there is madness surrounding us; 2012, we are now sure, is when the world comes to an end. But that was yesterday. Today, the morning after, is once again cold; we need to pick up the pieces, mend our hearts, move on. And there are questions too: what is this resolution? How did we perform? Is it all India’s fault? Where did we go wrong? Are we to be blamed? What now? Resolution L.2: From US, with love The resolution titled ‘Promoting reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka’ has, during the process of the UNHRC session, undergone considerable change. From being an intrusive and arrogant one sponsored by the US, it now appears rather soft,…

Continue reading »

Geneva 2012: The signs missed, lessons unlearnt

geneva_sri lankans

Photo courtesy JDS Let’s learn the right lessons from the Geneva outcome, not the wrong ones. It is not the case that a small country such as Sri Lanka cannot fight a diplomatic battle with the mighty USA and win.  Minutes after the Sri Lanka vote at the HRC this time, the Cubans moved a resolution on the composition of the staff of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the opacity (code-named independence) of which the West regards as a holy of holies. The USA opposed the resolution. The Cuban resolution won with a massive 33 votes. Last year the USA invested far more effort and political capital at a far higher political level than in the case of the Sri Lanka resolution in Geneva, to prevent Palestine from being granted full membership of the UNESCO in Paris. The US lost that battle, and besieged Palestine, an embryonic or proto-state (unlike Sri Lanka) won a two…

Continue reading »

WHOSE MOVE IS IT ANYWAY?

Image from www.dbsjeyaraj.com. Photo by Jean-Marc Ferré

  The passage of the United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution on Sri Lanka raises a fundamental question: what next? When the dust settles and tempers calm, all parties concerned will be faced with the actuality that things have changed quite dramatically. This piece attempts to identify the challenges and opportunities presented by the passage of the Resolution to a number of political entities or individuals. Sri Lankan government The Sri Lankan government now faces an awkward situation. Having lost more than one half of the entire membership of the Council including almost all of Latin America, and given the exhortations from even sympathetic members that it should implement the recommendations of the LLRC, the options at the Rajapaksas’ disposal have narrowed. What is clear is that twelve more months of slow or no progress on key issues of demilitarization, devolution, disarming paramilitaries, democracy and accountability will only isolate Sri Lanka further, and augment the likelihood of an international investigation…

Continue reading »
Page 3 of 7912345...102030...Last »

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!"

cezarneaga.eu
canakkale canakkale canakkale balik tutma search canakkale vergi mevzuati bagimsiz denetim vergi mevzuati ozurlu engelliler