Archive for the ‘Politics and Governance’

The Political Economy of Prejudice: Islam, Muslims and Sinhala-Buddhist Nationalism in Sri Lanka Today: Some Reflections

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From the Say No to Halaal Facebook group Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority is increasingly finding itself the target of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalists: a campaign against halal, attacks on mosques, boycott of their businesses, hate speech, intimidation and threats. Many concerned social activists, researchers and commentators have attempted to grapple with current manifestations of this phenomenon with a view to shaping meaningful and effective responses by furthering our understanding of its socio-political and economic dimensions.  This reflection is shared in the same spirit. I focus on two related aspects. Firstly, I highlight why it is important to term (and view) the spate of recent acts not just as anti-Muslim, as many tend to do, but also as anti-Islam. Viewing Sinhala-Buddhist extremist rhetoric only as ‘anti-Muslim’ actually overlooks the underlying prejudice against Islam itself that fuels this campaign. Secondly, the piece simultaneously argues for going beyond a mass-appeal-centred view of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism to account for its links with currently dominant political economic configurations…

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Pope Francis: Options for the poor, disappearances, dirty wars, dictatorships in Argentina, Sri Lanka and elsewhere

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Image courtesy New York Times, Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters The new Pope has been hailed as someone known for his simple life style, identification and sympathy to the poor, proclaiming “how I wish for a Church that is poor and for the poor”. In his homily at the Mass that formally installed him as the Pope today at the Vatican, he referred to the Church’s mission as one that has to show love, concern, and protect all people, particularly those in need, and also the environment. Several heads of states and the US Vice President was reported to have been present, and in their presence, the new Pope called on the “those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill” to be “protectors of one another and of the environment”. Amongst the heads of state present was Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who faces a travel ban by the European Union for alleged…

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Bodu Bala Sena: A Threat To Sri Lanka’s Future

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Goatabaya Rajapaksa ceremonially declaring open a Buddhist Leadership Academy of the Bodhu Bala Sena in Galle, via dbsjeyaraj.com Sri Lanka’s fragile attempt of reconciliation, following the end of the thirty-year civil war, faces a potentially backbreaking obstacle. The growing Sinhala Buddhist nationalism that is the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) movement is threatening to divide an already a fractious society. On the basis of protecting Sinhalese businessmen from the rising prices allegedly caused by Muslim businesses, the BBS movement has taken to the streets targeting the Muslim community. Having started last year with the unsubstantiated accusations against Muslims for illegally building mosques on “temple land”, Buddhist priests banded together in an attempt to demolish these structures. The authorities chose to stand idly by, and when finally forced to address the issue have to still to make a firm decision. The anti-Muslim issue has now progressed to the BBS calling for the ban of all Halal products. According to the organisation the…

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Sons and daughters missing, missed, forgotten: LLRC’s failure in Sri Lanka

"My daughter has been missing since 15th of May 2009 from Valaijarmadam" ~ Vasanthathevi Kathirkamanathan from Ananthapuram, Puthukkudiyiruppu in Mullaithivu District

Tamil mothers, sisters, wives and daughters have not yet given up their hopes to find their disappeared sons, brothers, husbands and fathers. The tragedy of endless search continues for them. Some Tamil women have more than one tragedy to digest. Vasanthathevi Kathirkamanathan is still searching for her missing daughter. And, her husband has been missing since May 2009. “I don’t know whether he is alive or dead. My relatives want me to believe that he was hit by a shell during the heavy fighting in May 2009, and died on the spot. But, he was with me till the last moment on 18th May 2009. If he was hit by a shell, and died on the spot, I must have seen his dead body. Since, I have not seen his dead body, I am unable to believe that he was killed. I strongly feel he was made to disappear. My life is in limbo” says tearful Vasanthathevi Kathirkamanathan from Ananthapuram,…

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Mullikulam: Restrictions on fishing, cultivation, access to the church and school continue

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The continuous appeals and campaigns carried out by the people of Mullikulam, the Bishop of Mannar, Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph and members of the clergy and civil society seems to have finally borne some results, in terms of the resettlement process of the people of Mullikulam. Even though the situation is still far from ideal, and the people still aspire to return home, as the intention of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) to stay put, is quite clear, and as the people have suffered for so long, they have reluctantly agreed to being resettled 750m outside of their original residential lands. Two and a half months since (December 26th 2012) the Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith met with the people of Mullikulam to discuss[1] their grievances,[2] we visited Mullikulam on 13th March 2013. We were able to see for ourselves and hear directly from the people about the progress made in terms of commitments[3] made by…

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  • 14 Mar, 2013
  • 29 Comments
  • Jaffna,
    Peace and Conflict,
    Politics and Governance,
    Post-War

Appeal from the Tamil Civil Society to the International Community regarding the upcoming resolution in the UNHRC on Sri Lanka

This appeal, signed by civil society activists who live and work in the North and East of Sri Lanka, seeks to state our position with regard to the resolution on Sri Lanka to be tabled at the 22nd sessions of the UN Human Rights Council. We understand that the resolution will seek to provide more time to the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations contained in the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and that it will fall short of calling for an international independent investigation to hold to account those responsible for the Crime of Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. If this resolution would contain only the above and no further, in our opinion, it would be truly unfortunate. We firmly believe that giving more time to the Government of Sri Lanka will lead to irrevocable damage being inflicted on the Tamils. There has been much talk about the ‘progress’ with implementing the LLRC. We welcome…

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The Numbers Never Lie: A Comprehensive Assessment of Sri Lanka’s LLRC Progress

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Download the report in full here, or view in inline here. ### Introduction Nearly four years since the end of the country’s civil war, Sri Lanka remains a divided, post-war society, as the ethnic conflict burns on. It has been fifteen months since the Final Report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was made public. In July 2012, the GoSL released an Action Plan to implement the LLRC recommendations, yet little progress has been made on this front. Instead, a host of problems related to the judiciary, governance and militarization, among other issues continue to plague the island nation. TSA’s third report, The Numbers Never Lie: A Comprehensive Assessment of Sri Lanka’s LLRC Progress, provides a detailed look at the Government of Sri Lanka’s LLRC progress that includes both quantitative and qualitative analysis. TSA surveyed 1,786 households across 208 GN divisions in nine districts throughout the North, East and Hill Country. In virtually all crucial areas, the GoSL…

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Impeachment of Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice and its impact: What do you think?

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Photo courtesy Euronews Just a few weeks since the impeachment of Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, no one is really talking about it anymore. Interviews conducted by and featured on Groundviews at the time impeachment proceedings were on clearly flagged serious fears over the independence of the judiciary. In order to ascertain the lasting impact of the impeachment in the manner it was conducted as well as to understand better the dynamics of public opposition or support towards it, Groundviews has created a brief online questionnaire. The questionnaire will be open for responses from today until 21 March 2013. Depending on the feedback, results of the questionnaire, along with suitable data visualisations, will be posted on this site. To answer the questionnaire, please click the button below OR click here to fill it out in a new browser window. Answer Questionnaire Please pass it on to friends and colleagues. Repost This Article

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An Allegory For Sri Lanka’s Sad Communalism

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Photo by Aufidius, via The untold story of a child The recent debate around the anti-halal movement, with its echoes of anti-Tamil sentiment of the post-independence period (‘Tamils get more government jobs,’ ‘Tamils have access to better education than Sinhalese’), is on the surface a conflation of religion, nationalism, class and various other factors. Beneath the complexity of the rhetoric, at least to me, are feelings of disaffection, great sadness, loss of meaning of what we stand for, of what we are as a nation, as a people. To attempt to make sense of it let’s scale down the scenario to a manageable, personal level. Consider this hypothetical situation: I am school age. I have a friend who, at least for now, we will call Sam ­– a facile Western name to free your image of him from Sri Lankan race/religion/caste and other cultural trappings that further complicate the issue. Sam is a huge cricket fan. On most days he…

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Grievances of Muslims in the North

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“It is not only inhumane to be expected to live under such terrible conditions, but these conditions are also a breeding ground for mosquitoes and the spread of other communicable diseases. If the water is not pumped out manually, it will be at least April by the time all the water left over by the floods evaporate,” said a distraught Muslim IDP from Uppukulam, Mannar, whilst pointing to a stagnant pool of water left by December’s flood (2012), in his backyard. He, together with his wife and widowed daughter live in a one-roomed shack in Uppukulam since their return in 2000. Muslim families in Uppukulam, Kondapitty (Mannar District), who were evicted by the LTTE in 1990, were given permit land by the State and permitted to return to Uppukulam in 2000. Having lived in cadjan huts for years, some families have been moved to an Indian Housing Scheme four years ago. Of the 96 houses built, only 50 (comprising approximately…

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Nalanda Sahayogaya

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Image from Wikimedia Commons Grappling and struggling With this constructed reality Where everyone wants to succeed But so few do Why don’t we try and forge Our own reality? I find it difficult to judge or criticize the actions and omissions of individuals without reference to the ideas and times they served. In the final analysis every individual is part of a larger pattern, a larger emotion and though process shared by other countrymen. This implementation of a collective will is what we refer to as our praxis – the application of a theory into life. Within the pan Indian cultural world (which extended from Maldives to Lanka and Indonesia in the South) this idea of putting principles into practice was recognized as yoga. Under Sri Lankan skies where the dharma taught by Buddha was practiced in earnest and integrated into both work and life (as far as the intelligence of Anuradhapura man permitted) this collective effort came to be…

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A Lenten Reflection by Bishop Duleep de Chickera

EVOLUTIONARY DECLINE AND THE ASCENT OF HUMAN RESILIENCE The weeks leading to Independence Day on February 4 were filled with intense debate on the legality and morality of the impeachment of the Chief Justice (CJ). The debate centred on the interpretation of the law and the political motives behind it. The government finally had its way and the CJ was impeached. The beginning of Lent, (Ash Wednesday, Feb. 13) followed close on these events. Since Lent is a time for inner scrutiny, repentance and a return to integrity amidst the harsh realities of life, any realistic preparation to celebrate Easter as the Festival of Ascent, is called to wrestle with these events. Evolutionary decline The episode of the impeachment of CJ Bandaranayake is not to be seen as an isolated incident. It is part of a wider design in governance, strong and predictable enough to be identified as evolutionary decline. Evolutionary because it grows on us; decline because it pulls…

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The state of media in Sri Lanka: In conversation with Dilrukshi Handunnetti

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Dilrukshi Handunnetti is currently Senior Deputy Editor, Ceylon Today and was, before Lasantha Wickrematunge’s murder, lead investigative journalist at the Sunday Leader. We begin by going into why after years as a journalist, Dilrukshi joined Transparency International for a few years to advocacy for many of the same issues that she had written about in the media. She is also asked whether in her current position at Ceylon Today – geared more to the oversight and curation of content others produce – she missed actually writing investigative articles herself. We then talk about how, even after the end of the way years ago, Sri Lanka’s media freedom and space for critical dissent remains abysmal, and by some global indicators, ironically getting worse post-war. She explain why she is still interested in writing as a journalist in this context. We go into this in more detail given the pushback from the Sri Lankan armed forces she got when writing a path-breaking…

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The Numbers Never Lie: A Quick Look at Sri Lanka’s LLRC Progress

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The administration of President Mahinda Rajapaksa won the ethnic war, but Sri Lanka’s protracted conflict is more alive than ever. There is a lot of talk about how the situation in the North and East has improved, but most of these assertions are misleading. The rebuilding of physical infrastructure alone is not a very helpful indicator when it comes to reconciliation. The dearth of psychosocial assistance being provided, the thousands of disappeared who remain missing and the continued erosion of the rule of law contradict the Government of Sri Lanka’s (GoSL) assertion that the country has made meaningful progress on the reconciliation front. At this point, national reconciliation is not just illusory; it is a fantasy and will be as long as the present regime maintains its antipathetic stance towards human rights, devolution and the implementation of the LLRC recommendations. As the 22nd session of the UN’s Human Rights Council (HRC) comes to the attention of both domestic and international…

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Dead men do tell tales

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Photo courtesy Sri Lanka Guardian Watching the current commentary on the mass grave in Matale “There are allegations that the bodies are those of victims of a small pox outbreak from a hundred years ago, while others believe they may be those killed by a flood some years ago.
” Makes one wonder if we are all suffering from a collective amnesia. The suppression of the JVP insurgency by the government was not just vicious in action, a sort of tit-for-tat killing for ‘their’ viciousness, it was a time when the sadists of our nation were given free reign to enjoy themselves before killing countless innocents. ‘Innocents’?, one may ask. Many people still consider all the dead of that time as hard core revolutionaries who were on a killing spree, but having been a witness at a dinner, to the response of a ‘brave’ leader of the time defended the criticism of ‘excessive force, with the answer “You fellows just don’t…

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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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