THE WAR AND MY TIMES
Fidel quotes a Cuban saying that a man is marked more by his times than his family. My times were shaped by armed conflict: wars, insurrections and counter-insurgency; successive wars in the…
Author: Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
Human Rights: An analysis of options and challenges facing South Asia
As always the debate in Sri Lanka is needlessly polarised. The human rights fundamentalists do not give a damn about national sovereignty, thereby reinforcing the nationalist backlash against the human rights constituency…
THE OPPOSITION IN SRI LANKA: RESTORE VIABILITY, RESOLVE CRISIS
What prevents the ruling coalition from unveiling a new ‘first past the post’ electoral system and going for a mid–term parliamentary election? Judging by current trends and data of a decade, the…
THE TRAGIC TRAJECTORY OF CHANAKA’S LIBERAL PROJECT
Some of us are born at the wrong time or in the wrong place or in both the wrong time and place. Â Nietzsche said he was born posthumously. He meant that the…
MAHINDA’S TRIPLE WHAMMY & THE OPPOSITION’S ORGANIC CRISIS
Remember the “Bandaranaike Sri Lanka’s Northern Question (Gramsci spoke of Italy’s ‘Southern Question’) can be amicably resolved. President Mahinda Rajapakse has proved himself a superb politician and a successful wartime leader. Can…
Debating sovereignty in Sri Lanka
A decent enough interval has not lapsed between Dr Nihal Jayawickrama’s first expression of views on sovereignty in the a fortnight ago, and his more reasoned and most recent expression, for the…
April 8: The best case scenario
The government wants a two thirds majority in order to replace the Constitution, it says. The UNP opposition hopes to form a coalition with other Opposition parties. It would be unhealthy for…
Whither enemies of the state: The political debate in Sri Lanka today
– Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, 4.14 The current Sri Lankan political discourse, thin gruel though it is, contains three morsels of content:Â democracy, the electoral system and national sovereignty. Some question whether…
Ranil’s road, Mahinda’s map
Does the UNP and Opposition leader Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe suffer from a compulsion towards electoral suicide or is it a condition of political sado-masochism? Only someone who is politically suicidal or sadistic…
The TNA manifesto and Tamil self-determination in Sri Lanka
Here we go again, or should I say here they come again, or is it here they go again? In an opening scene in the movie 300, based on Frank Miller’s freely…
War crimes and human rights in Sri Lanka: A home grown solution
The Sri Lankan discourse on war crimes, violations of international humanitarian law and human rights in general, divide into two camps, both of which demonise the other. One holds that the entire…
Seeing it comin’: Reforming the Sri Lankan State
– ‘Falling & Flyin’, Jeff Bridges in ‘Crazy Heart’ Seeing it comin’: Will the Tamils silently celebrate and the Sinhalese secretly curse the day that Prabhakaran died? With his secessionist fundamentalism and…
SARATH FONSEKA AFFAIR: POLITICAL CANNIBALISM MUST CEASE IN SRI LANKA!
I leave the country for scholarly reflection and writing for (at least) two years, with a heavy heart. Â I am proud to have supported President Rajapakse at the 2005 and 2010 elections…
VALEDICTORY FOR A SEASON
The Sri Lankan crisis continues, sourced in and stemming from two major flaws/factors: (i) There is no comprehension that “justice must not only be done, but be seen to be done” and…
ELECTORAL NANDIKADAL: NATIONAL-POPULAR vs. NEO-COMPRADOR
“ It is easy to be wise after the event, so I usually try to be wise before it. In a piece originally entitled ‘Crisis 2010: The post election scenario’ published over…