Comments on: Rejecting Bildt, one way winds and concerns over conflict regulation

By: Chaminda Weerawardhana

Chaminda Weerawardhana — Sat, 02 May 2009 16:45:26 +0000

Dear Mr/Ms ‘Talking Frog’ & Underdog,

Thanks very much for your comments, which are indeed very sound, adding much to the article. I wholeheartedly agree with what you are saying.

The public secret that the LTTE did not allow northern Tamil votes to be case in December 2005 due to a pact with the R-brothers is indeed of crucial importance. It is a fine example of how the ‘galactic polity’ of ours function…in this article, I did not evoke it for two reasons: first, (and most deplorably) this issue did not affect the legitimacy of the 2005 Presidential Election, and whether many citizens agree or not, a new Head of State was elected for the next six years.
Secondly, the MR government is being largely criticised for its military offensive, and its international standing is dwindling – which does not make things easier (it makes the govt stick to its military stance even more, and further embrace its Sinhala nationalist partners.

If things are to change, concerned international players need to take up a new approach -that focuses on a gradual policy transformation within the government. It is a complex negotiation process, where bargains need to be developed gradually, letting the government come to terms with certain ‘advantages’ of, for instance, reducing military offensives, letting journalists into the war zone, allowing for more press freedom etc. (this may sound ambitious, but good negotiators/mediators can definitely make this happen). This is the main way to challenge the wave of Sinhala nationalism that thrives in SL and so badly affects election results and government policy.

By: The Underdog

The Underdog — Sat, 02 May 2009 04:55:35 +0000

@ The Talking Frog

“Did the “people” give the President the mandate to kill large numbers of people (as he fought the LTTE)”

Sadly, I think they did (‘they’ meaning the majority community). The frogs in the southern well are ever eager to encourage the use of force against frogs in the northern well since they are isolated from and in blissful denial of the suffering in the north. Empathy does not reach across from our well to theirs.

By: The Talking Frog

The Talking Frog — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:25:17 +0000

Dear Sir, you say: “it cannot be ignored that the Rajapakse administration received a peoples’ mandate to address the ethnic conflict using a strategy different from the Wickramasinghe government of 2001-4. Propaganda or not, that mandate has been subsequently strengthened by repeated successes at local government elections.”

methinks you forget that the people now being killed were not given the opportunity to give this mandate — to sign their death sentence. Furthermore, you seem to confuse the laudable ideas of democracy with the deplorable tendencies of majoritarianism.

Did the “people” give the President the mandate to kill large numbers of people (as he fought the LTTE) only if those people were Tamil? or would it have been equally acceptable if the thousands dying now were Sinhala people?

I read you as saying that Sri Lanka is a racist majoritarian state. I sir had rather wished it wasn’t. Such places are not safe for us sensitive frogs.