Comments on: Government and LTTE differ on value of life

By: punitham

punitham — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:34:23 +0000

Contd….
I mean i was outraged by the accusations hurled on the peacemakers of all sorts. But now I think there may be some truth in it.

By: punitham

punitham — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:26:39 +0000

Mhhhh…., Ishini, Ctizen……..
One cannot fathom how vicious this conflict is.
In late 2008 only I found out from the website of International Centre for Ethnic Studies(in Sri lanka) that there was a lecture on "The Iraq Intervention: What US Policy Makers Could Have Learned from Sri Lanka" by Dr. John M. Richardson on July 21, 2006 at the ICES Auditorium, Colombo. Ever since I have been trying to get at an electronic/paper copy of this lecture. I'm still hunting for it. If the ICES is genuinely interested in not only peace for Sri Lanka but also peace for the whole world, they should have it available(free or priced) in electronic or paper form to as many people as possible. It IS part of PEACE EDUCATION which is not confined within the walls of a classsroom of a school but distributed all over this wide world, esp. the multiverse of the internet.
If anybody who reads this knows where I can get it please let me know by posting a message here.For more than ten years I've been outraged to hear that some people are making money in Colombo on ''peace initiatives'' and ''conflict resolution''.

By: citizen

citizen — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:39:27 +0000

In reply to punitham.

Puthinam,
It is heartening to see your fair and constructive points you present (though they would have been better argued in an article instead of being hidden away as comments). They are idealistic, but i think it is encouraging to see that dreamers and idealists still speak out with hope for Sri Lanka.
We need charismatic voices to promote the cause of reconciliation, forgiveness, understanding and broad and meaningful interaction between the sections of our society that have been disjointed because of war.
We are like the pieces of a broken machine – the only way to make it work – to make ourselves work again – is to put it together, have the cogs turn each other, make sure it is well oiled with understanding and mutual respect so that it won't jam and break again.

By: punitham

punitham — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:14:05 +0000

When one has been at the receiving end of a deadly treatment for sixty years, one wishes it doesn't happen to anyone else and is desperate to see the lessons are learnt by others.
But then the probability of this deadly combination of geography and history anywhere else or anytime else is very remote.

By: ishini

ishini — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 04:47:53 +0000

dear punitham, you remain a dreamer when the need of the hr are men with their feet on the gorund…

By: punitham

punitham — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:27:34 +0000

8. Multinational corporations, businesses and businessmen's organisations should play a more active role in supporting successful development policies.

9. Successful development requires a long-term view. Giving sufficient weight to the long-term requires institutional mechanisms and discourses that extend beyond the next election and term in office of political leaders presently in power.

10. There must be realistic, rigorous, opportunity-costs analyses of military options, versus equivalent expenditures for non military options, before proceeding down the slippery slope of 'military solutions' to complex development problems

By: punitham

punitham — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:26:38 +0000

5. Development policies that meet human beings' common aspirations – to feel good about their lives, the circumstances in which they live and future prospects for themselves and their children – will contribute most effectively to keeping violent conflict and terrorism within acceptable bounds.

6. Those who frame development policies should seek a middle path between capitalism's efficient, but Darwinian precepts, and socialism's egalitarian, but stultifying precepts.

7. Good governance and democratisation must be part of the 'successful development' mix. Most important are governance institutions that are open to 'bad news' and self-correcting.

By: Punitham

Punitham — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:25:05 +0000

A promising, proactive strategy for preventing deadly conflict and terrorism can be summarized in ten imperatives. Their relevance extends well beyond Sri Lanka , to Kosovo, Kashmir , Palestine , the Sudan , Afghanistan and, in particular, Iraq:
1. Maintaining public order and preventing social turbulence from escalating into protracted deadly conflict are prerequisite to the success of all other development policies.
2. Polarising political rhetoric and tactics must be forgone, however empting their short-term benefits may seem. Like mustard gas, which had to be abandoned as a weapon in World War I, this strategy
has a tendency to 'blow back' upon the user.
3. Meeting the needs and aspirations of fighting age young men should be the first priority of national development polices and of programs funded by international donors.
4. Developing countries should have internal security forces (police and paramilitary) that are generously funded, professional, apolitical and trained to meet the complex challenges of maintaining public order in a changing society.

By: punitham

punitham — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:35:28 +0000

Contd…
I have used the following metaphor in previous chapters, but it cannot be repeated too often:
The situation is analogous to our knowledge about the relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. We know that smoking is a principal cause of lung cancer, though there are other causes. We know that refraining from smoking is the best way of avoiding lung cancer, though some abstainers may still contract the disease. A medical practitioner would not simply advocate abstinence. He or she might recommend regular exercise, a healthy diet and a regimen of antioxidants. Thus 'avoid development failures' is an insufficient prophylactic for protracted deadly conflict. More proactive remedies are needed.

By: punitham

punitham — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:26:57 +0000

Contd….
The illustrative examples I chose focused on the development failure of polarising political rhetoric and tactics, described in chapter 21. S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike's 1956 general election campaign used racist appeals, in which he did not personally believe, to mobilise support for his People's United Front. Not long afterwards, as readers will recall, J.R. Jayewardene and Dudley Senanayake used similarly expedient tactics to defeat a carefully crafted Compromise plan for devolving power to Tamils, the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam pact. The overarching message embodied in Mahatma Gandhi's enumeration ofblunders and my enumeration of development failures is the same. We know more than enough to choose policies that will help prevent protracted deadly conflict – and to not choose policies that will cause protracted deadly conflict.