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Groundviews

Author: Michael Roberts

Year
Month
Colombo, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance

Mahinda Rajapaksa as a Modern Mahāvāsala and Font of Clemency? The Roots of Populist Authoritarianism in Sri Lanka

On 4th December 2011 the carried a headline: “Mahinda ready to meet General Fonseka’s family over pardon” — with a picture alongside showing President Mahinda Rajapaksa seated in an armchair perusing an…

Michael Roberts Michael Roberts on 01/25/201201/25/2012
Colombo, International, Jaffna, Language, Peace and Conflict

Clouds of Deception: Jeyaraj anoints and cloaks Niromi Tigress

Writing from a Tamil nationalist position which occasionally earned the LTTE monster’s ire, David Jeyaraj has provided the world with invaluable service over the years. He had considerable information on both the…

Michael Roberts Michael Roberts on 12/28/2011
Colombo, Fiction / Creative Writing, Jaffna, Language, Peace and Conflict

Niromi 2009 versus Niromi Tigress 2011

Niromi de Soyza’s so-called autobiography, weekend magazine.[i] Gordon Weiss, the moral crusader, proclaimed it to be “incredibly moving” and considers it “a story of redemption” (as quoted by Nikki Barrowclough). This may…

Michael Roberts Michael Roberts on 12/22/201112/21/2011
Colombo, Diaspora, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War

Addressing Greg Sheridan’s Review of the Tamil Lobby and Australia

Greg Sheridan’s articles on the Tamil lobby in Australia and the workings of the Australian state are something of a breakthrough because the media coverage of the Sri Lankan conflict has been…

Michael Roberts Michael Roberts on 11/19/2011
Features, Identity, Long Reads, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Reconciliation, Vavuniya

Turning Former LTTE Personnel into Sri Lankan Citizens?

Editors note: Also read a response to this article by Valkryie, titled ] Whatever the death toll during the last stages of Eelam War IV in 2009 the official government data in that…

Michael Roberts Michael Roberts on 10/28/201111/27/2011
Colombo, Features, International, Jaffna, Language, Media and Communications, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance

Forbidden Fruits: Niromi de Soyza’s “Tamil Tigress”, Noumi Kouri and Helen Demidenko?

The literary world is now poised on the brink wondering if the Niromi de Soyza[i] woven an autobiographical tale of lies that match those coined by Norma Toliopoulos and Helen Darville who…

Michael Roberts Michael Roberts on 08/31/201108/31/2011
Colombo, Identity, International, Politics and Governance

Ancestry and Ethnic Identity in the Australian Census… and thus to Sri Lanka

The 9th of August was census night in Australia. The census form has three boxes relating to “Country of Birth,” one’s “language other than English at home” and “Ancestry”— all interesting formulations…

Michael Roberts Michael Roberts on 08/20/201108/18/2011
Peace and Conflict, Post-War, Reconciliation, Sport

Kumar Sangakkara steps forth like Young Ceylon

Kumar Sangakkara’s Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture for the MCC this summer was the antithesis of that presented within the same portals in 2006 by Martin Crowe.[i] Where Crowe returned to the…

Michael Roberts Michael Roberts on 07/12/2011
Identity, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Reconciliation

Tuyilam Illam: Positivist readings and new debating grounds

[Author’s note: Though I was invited around February 2011 to respond to the discussion in  on the issue of Tiger ‘cemeteries’ being desecrated, I was so busy that my draft article simply…

Michael Roberts Michael Roberts on 05/20/201105/19/2011
Colombo, Features, Sport

2011 World Cup Cricket Final: Right Royal MESS-UP at the Toss-Up

Image courtesy Business Live There was a truly remarkable moment at the start of the World Cup Final between India and Sri Lanka. Amidst a deafening cacophony of noise Match Referee Jeff…

Michael Roberts Michael Roberts on 04/05/201104/06/2011
18th Amendment, Colombo, Media and Communications

AT THE CUTTING EDGE OF PUBLIC DEBATES: Encounters with Mervyn de Silva, 1960s-1980s

Image courtesy Transcurrents The odd story about former undergraduate Mervyn de Silva would be retailed around the corridors of Peradeniya campus when I was residing there as an undergraduate from 1957, an…

Michael Roberts Michael Roberts on 09/05/201009/07/2010
Colombo, End of war special edition, Human Rights, Human Security, Identity, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Reconciliation

CHALLENGES TODAY: WEEVILS IN THE MIND

Daya Somasundaram was in Jaffna town in late 1995 when the Sri Lankan army advanced south and eastwards from Palaly. As the LTTE decided upon a strategic withdrawal, they insisted that all…

Michael Roberts Michael Roberts on 05/22/201005/15/2010
Constitutional Reform, Development, Economy, Foreign Relations, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War

THE RAJAPAKSE REGIME: BRICKBATS, PLAUDITS

[Editors note: This article complements , also by the same author.] This is a disjointed exercise that does not claim comprehensiveness. That is impossible in a short essay, the more so because…

Michael Roberts Michael Roberts on 12/17/200912/13/2009
Colombo, Human Security, Jaffna, Media and Communications

THE RAJAPAKSE REGIME AND THE FOURTH ESTATE

Authors note: This is the first of two articles. The second is in draft form and is tentatively entitled’. It may appear first in print form, but that remains to be seen….

Michael Roberts Michael Roberts on 12/08/200912/08/2009
Human Rights, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Politics and Governance

Adjutant Australia: Controlling Boat People

The ongoing brouhaha around the boat people ‘storming’ Australian maritime waters displays two tendencies in Australian politics and its cultural underpinnings. The first tendency, A, is the insidious influence of a long-standing…

Michael Roberts Michael Roberts on 11/07/200911/07/2009

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