Comments on: Sri Lanka’s Foreign Policy Trends since January 2015: Some Critical Thoughts

By: puniselva

puniselva — Sun, 19 Jun 2016 15:32:00 +0000

Yesterday at a meeting in London Dr Harsha de Silva and Mrs Rosie Senanayake appealed to the Sri Lankan Britons to vote ''Remain in the EU'' at the referendum to be held next week in the UK. During Q&A my comment: I have 2 requests: !. Please ask the President and the Prime Minister to heed Prof Uyangoda's appeal made 5 days ago at BMICH. 2. Please take the ''Corridors of Power'' Exhibition to the parliament before they fiddle too much with the Constitution-making without understanding the faults in the previous constitutions. It's odd that while Sri Lankan government has ''turned their back on the reform agenda for good governance, democracy, and peace building'' they(Sri Lankan government's delegates) ask others to vote for a certain principle. Successive Sri Lankan governments have insulted Tamil representatives by setting thugs on them(June 1956) or putting them under house arrest for asking for federalism or for staging non-violent sit-in protests or even bringing in Sixth Amendment that violates UN Charter. but drove the Tamil parliamentarians out of the country to India..

By: puniselva

puniselva — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 06:20:00 +0000

Prof
Thank you for the short and sharp speech. A Sinhala translation to Sinhala parliamentarians would be immensely appreciated.

By: puniselva

puniselva — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 05:07:00 +0000

Prof
”this government’s exemplary record of restoring and maintaining an open, democratic and non-repressive political ambience in the country, is more a product of preventing the state agencies doing certain things” ??
Oh, No, Prof,
What about the things the Civil Security Department and Civil Military Coordination of Jaffna have been doing in the North? At least those who know English in the South must read their websites.

If you haven’t noticed this nobodyelse would have.
Maybe that’s part of the ”ambience”.

By: puniselva

puniselva — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 03:21:00 +0000

Prof
Wishyour speech will open the ears and eyes of the President and the Prime Minister:

One thing has not changed at all: the control of the North by the military. Truly speaking, they have been gaining more power under this government than in the previous regime: one of many examples:
enrolling Tamil Youth in SLA is ”welfare scheme” which is the answer to any question on demilitarisation:

”Sri Lanka’s military has launched a welfare scheme in Jaffna, with the intention of encouraging Tamil Youth to enrol in Sri Lanka’s army. The launch took place in the fields of an army camp located in Jaffna Town, with the Commanding Officer Major General in Jaffna Mahesh Senanayaka opening the initiative” – Sri Lanka military launches welfare scheme in Jaffna, 13 June 2016

By: Sam Thambipillai

Sam Thambipillai — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 11:59:00 +0000

The foreign policy of SL is like a ship caught up in a hurricane at mid sea.

I do not think that any SLFP politician in SL, including President
Sirisena are able to implement even the agreed UNHRC resolution.

Apartheid is brutal. This happened in South Africa. Majoritarian
apartheid in SL was built on brutality, and political, historical and
Buddhist falsehood or lies.

President Sirisena, last week, in a speech said that he will “eliminate”
LTTE ideology for “separate state”, inside and globally.

Did we hear the truth? No. Can he do anything? No.

Separate state ideology was started democratically, in 1976, long before
LTTE, as Vaddukoddai Resolution, and voted by more than 60% “Yes” votes
in 1977 by the people, for the people of North and East. That is the
truth.

President Sirisena seems not to understand what is extremism. Tamils
asking for their legitimate right is democracy not extremism. But,
Sinhalese refusing to give rights of Tamils is extremism.

In democracy, all citizens are equal. There is no “majority” with more
privileges and “minority” with less privileges.

SLFP politicians, dress in white, to impress that they are holy and pure
but tell blatant lies on Tamil issues, to mislead the masses. This
culminated in brutal Tamil genocide. The dictator MR and all his MPs
were dressed in white to dupe masses and the world to commit massive
frauds and genocide.

Buddhist monks wear saffron robes but their heart, nature of talk and
actions do not depict the nature of Buddha or his preaching.

Yet, SL has agreed with the UNHRC to do Truth and reconciliation.
Surely, the leaders of SL are incapable of doing it to bring peace

By: alex

alex — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 10:51:00 +0000

What the author is saying, is that with the Sirisena Wickremesinghe duo, Sri Lanka’s foreign policy will be to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds. Promise human rights to the West and friendship to the East and benefit from both?