Archive for the ‘Politics and Governance’

Securing Media Freedom in National Security States

“Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.” Benjamin Franklin. “Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.” Marx As Sri Lanka transforms from a welfare into a “national security state,” we are witnessing the worst suppression of media freedom since the time of our independence. Nearly thirty journalists have been forced to abandon their work in the face of unrelenting harassment, or imprisoned, tortured, exiled, or killed. Those media personnel who, in the face of this attack, have responded by inventing creative ways to maintain the freedom of the press, deserve our respect for continuing to operate under tremendous risks and constraints. These stalwarts require our immediate assistance if we are to secure our media freedom and ensure that Sri Lanka be a place for meaningful citizen- and social-journalistic praxis. We must undergo a paradigm shift in the way we approach media freedoms: our efforts must stretch beyond the legal reforms that democratize…

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The Cost of Defying Political Authority

Reams have been written on the two main topics widely discussed in Sri Lanka today. One is the fate of the army commander who chose to defy the authority of the Rajapakse brothers and the other is the 18th amendment that was passed with a large majority in parliament (161 for and 17 against) on September 8, 2010. It gives the president absolute power. In an article published on the 43rd death anniversary of Che Guevera (October 9th) the writer says Che was not an anarchist but he wanted a strong handed moral government. He felt compelled to obey moral laws; finally sacrificing even his life in the struggle as in the Greek tragedy “Antigone”. “Antigone’s revolt stemmed not from a rejection of authority, but on the contrary from obedience to a moral law, than to an arbitrary edict. Antigone lost her life trying to protect human rights which are really moral rights while defying political authority. Sarath Fonseka is…

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Political Satire in Sri Lanka: When Making Fun is No Laughing Matter

Book cover - Wimalege Colama

Review of Wimalege Colama (Wimale’s Column), a collection of satirical columns by Wimalanath Weeraratne Sinhala; 232 pp; Author publication; September 2010 Political satire is nothing new: it has been around for as long as organised government trying to keep the wielders of power in check. Over the centuries, it has manifested in many oral, literary or theatrical traditions, some of it more enduring — such as Gulliver’s Travels and Animal Farm. And for over a century, political cartoonists have also been doing it with such brilliant economy of words. Together, these two groups probably inspire more nightmares in tyrants than anyone or anything else. Today, political satire has also emerged as a genre on the airwaves and in cyberspace, and partly compensates for the worldwide decline in serious and investigative journalism. Many mainstream media outlets have become too submissive and subservient to political and corporate powers. Those who still have the guts often lack the resources and staff to pursue…

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Why women in politics always matters: A conversation with Chulani Kodikara

Chulani Kodikara has written five articles for Groundviews, three on the topic of women in mainstream politics in Sri Lanka. Revealingly, they are comparatively three of the most under-read articles on this site. Women are not willing to go back to pre-war status quo, a compelling essay written for the special edition on the end of war, has at the time of writing only generated around 450 pageviews, abysmal in comparison to the tens of thousands who read and engaged with other articles in this special edition. This marked lack of interest in and awareness of a vital issue provided the backdrop for a recent conversation with Chulani on the issue of women’s representation in Sri Lankan mainstream politics. Fundamentally, the issue is marginal to mainstream political parties and of peripheral interest at best to most voters – female and male. In an important essay, Chulani notes that “the main obstacle to equal political representation of women in political institutions…

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Allergy to analysis and historical amnesia in Sri Lanka

The trouble with Sri Lankan political and civil society is that everyone’s an amateur psychologist. Instead of listening to or reading what someone says and treating it on its merits, the name of the game is to speculate on what motivated him. What’s s/he after? Who is he with now? Thus it is that gossip substitutes for analysis. The upshot of  the personalised normative reactions of Sri Lankan society, i.e. reacting to who is saying it rather than what is said, deprives us of learning anything of value that the writer or speaker may have to offer. So, it goes something like this. If one asserts that Sri Lankan democracy is not dead, and the country is neither totalitarian nor a dictatorship but that Sri Lankan democracy has always been unevenly developing and subject to contractions and expansions, the automatic response is that the writer or exponent of this view is attempting to whitewash Rajapakse rule. But again, what if…

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A Brief Commentary and Table on the Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Bill 2010

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By Bhavani Fonseka, Supipi Jayawardena and Mirak Raheem October 2010 The Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Bill 2010 (Bill) proposes a series of changes to the laws relating to the election of local authorities (LA) that include Municipal Councils, Urban Councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas. A principal change proposed in the Bill is the introduction of a mixed system of First Past the Post (FPP) and Proportional Representation (PR). The Bill reintroduces the ward system, whereby a LA is divided into a number of electoral units. Each ward elects one member, unless in the case of a multi-member ward. The number elected under the PR system is not fixed. A maximum of 30% of the number of members elected under FPP of a LA will be appointed under PR. The Bill has several salient features including strengthening the processes for counting and polling in order to ensure the integrity of an election. Although positive measures are noted, there are serious concerns with…

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Rally calling for the immediate release Sarath Fonseka: Video and photos

The JVP organised a massive rally in Colombo on 11 October calling for the release of Sarath Fonseka from prison. Eye-witness accounts suggest over 3,000 people were part of this rally in the heart of Colombo, which took place in front of the prison where Sarath Fonseka is incarcerated. No violence was recorded. Mainstream print and electronic media coverage of this rally was abysmal in Sri Lanka, suggesting a very high degree of self-censorship on this issue, driven by fear of hate and harm directed against journalists perceived by government to be partial to Sarath Fonseka. Photos courtesy Vikalpa. Video courtesy Vikalpa’s YouTube channel. View JVP rally to release Sarath Fonseka in a larger map

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LLRC: Submission by Manik de Silva, President of the Editors Guild

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Manik de Silva is the most senior and longest-serving Editor of an English newspaper in Sri Lanka. Presently the Editor of the Sunday Island, Manik was also a former Editor of the Daily News and is currently the President of the Editors Guild. Manik’s testimony to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) on 13th September 2010 covers, inter alia, the nature of media censorship during the war, the deliberate targeting of independent journalists by both the Government and the LTTE, the problems arising from the lack of access to war zones by independent media and views on the media and the ceasefire agreement in general. This recording is best listened with headphones and is around 47 minutes long. Unsurprisingly, no State media in Sri Lanka gave any coverage to Manik’s condemnation of the war time censorship of media, or references to the retribution journalists faced if they reported in a manner perceived to be ‘unhelpful’ by the military. For…

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Inquiry into a Sri Lankan Man’s Stolen Bicycle

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On a beautiful late summer day, the eighth of September 2010 to be precise, outside the railway station in the historic university city of Bridgetown, England, I found this Sri Lankan chap, Sivapuranam Thevaram, of whom we have read a bit in these pages recently: the structure of his name, his debt to his father and the sorrow of Sivahamy, his mother. Thevaram has been crying at the railway station when I caught up with him — crying over his bicycle which had just been stolen. Grownups don’t cry, we are told. Thevaram has made several exceptions to this in his adult life. Watching Nelson Mandela’s release from prison on television was one such occasion. As the former prisoner walked past the gates with his raised arm and clenched fist, Thevaram could not hold back his tears. That’s odd, we might think. It should be a happy event and why does one cry when faced with such good news? The…

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Political Character of the UPFA Regime: Is Democracy Safe?

“One of the greatest dangers, therefore, of democracy as of any other form of government, lies in the sinister interest of the holders of power…And one of the most important questions demanding consideration, in determining the best constitution of representative government, is how to provide efficacious securities against this evil” (John Stuart Mill, On Liberty and Other Essays, Page, p.299) ******** Introduction The passing of the 18th Amendment in parliament has been greeted with alarm as a dangerous lurch towards increasing authoritarianism by the state. However the 18th Amendment received support from a wide range of the political spectrum, from the traditional left parties in the regime to the defected UNPers. The UNPers did so defying their party leadership. It is a telling sign of the Government’s inability to muster a convincing answer to its critics that despite the fact that it is the most powerful post-colonial regime Sri Lanka has seen, this bill was rushed through parliament without sufficient…

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A conversation with Kumudini Samuel

Kumudini Samuel is the founder of Women and Media Collective, a women’s group working for the inclusion of women concerns in peace process and the change of attitudes towards gender issues. We begin our conversation over Kumudini’s interesting naming of her son, leading to larger questions over discrimination and negotiation of identity, race and ethnicity in Sri Lanka. Kumudini also talks about her work as a peace activist during the years of war from the 80′s, and about her time as a member of the Sub Committee on Gender Issues during the ceasefire agreement in 2003, negotiating with at the time high-level female cadre from the LTTE. I asked her why in 2003 she thought it fit to sit down with the killers of Sarojini Yogeswaran. As noted in this article, Sarojini, who was shot dead at her home, had refused military security in her belief that the political culture of Jaffna should, and could, be changed by a civil…

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‘Sarath Fonseka’: the Grand Plaything of Sri Lanka’s Politicians

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“This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang, but a whimper.” (TS Eliot) Sarath Fonseka’s emergence as a politician was of immense political benefit to a number of politicians and political parties in Sri Lanka; not necessarily for good reasons though. ‘Sarath Fonseka’ was, for those who stood to benefit from his (imagined) success in politics, a mere political plaything. This is something that many, including Sarath Fonseka, ought to have realized a long time ago. The above point is raised not with the slightest intention of justifying the horrendous ‘fate’ that has befallen Sarath Fonseka today. While this writer was no supporter of Sarath Fonseka’s Presidential ambitions, Fonseka’s swift and sudden arrest, detention and imprisonment showed the callousness with which the present regime could act if it truly wanted to end a political career of a political opponent, a perceived political threat. In that respect, the imprisonment of Fonseka is truly a most unfortunate and disturbing…

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Amber Light Signals Requiring Pro-active Action by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission

5th October 2010 S. B. Atugoda Esq. Secretary, Presidential Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation, 24, Horton Place, Colombo 7. Dear Mr. Atugoda, Amber Light Signals Requiring Pro-active Action by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission Further to the submissions made by me earlier before the Presidential Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation (LLRC), I wish to draw the kind attention of the Commissioners to the undernoted amber light signals evident from a scan of the external environment. These signals point to an urgent need for the Commission to recommend appropriate risk mitigation strategies, with a view towards assuring sustainable integration and reconciliation in Sri Lanka; Sri Lanka has several active political parties with popular support which are founded, based on principles or established for the purpose of promoting some ethnic groups and/or religious beliefs During the presidential and parliamentary elections, these political parties and their leaders make promises and commit to action strategies that tend to promote the advancement…

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LLRC: Testimony by Ferial Ashraff

Groundviews was able to obtain the audio recording of the testimony by Ferial Ashraff to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) on 24 September 2010. The recording is around 40 minutes long. Ms. Ashraff incorporates into this vital testimony the opinion of many women, including those directly affected by war.

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LLRC: Submission by the Friday Forum

Dear Groundviews, The following was submitted by the Friday Forum to the LLRC today by Mahen Dayanada, former Chairman, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. Friday Forum Members who associated with the submisson are; Jayantha Dhanapala Most Rev. Bishop Duleep de Chickera Professor Arjuna Aluwihare Suriya Wickremasinghe Dr. A. C. Visvalingam Jezima Ismail Manouri Muttetuwegama Dr. Deepika Udagama Dr. Selvy Thiruchandran Dr. Camena Gunaratne Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne Sithie Tiruchelvam Ahilan Kadirgamar Lanka Nesiah Dr. Anura Ekanayake Dr. Nimal Sandaratne Prashan de Visser Mahen Dayananda Professor Gananath Obeysekera Professor Ranjini Obeysekera Suresh de Mel Ranjit Fernando J. C. Weliamuna Damaris Wickramasekera Shanthi Dias Chandra Jayaratne With Warm Regards, Chandra Jayaratne ### INTRODUCTION The Friday Forum is an informal gathering of public spirited persons committed to contributing to the future development of Sri Lanka within a framework of democracy, pluralism and social justice. The Forum brings together a diversity of expertise and viewpoints reflecting its membership consisting of academics, various professionals, retired diplomats and…

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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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