Leaves IMF deal, debt rework in limbo by Uditha Jayasinghe, Sudipto Ganguly and Libby George, Reuters, London, September 24, 2024 Summary Balancing pro-poor policies with IMF deal is new president’s biggest challenge IMF says to work with him, discuss timing of third review Leader has expressed willingness to renegotiate IMF terms COLOMBO/LONDON, Sept 24 (Reuters)… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
Who Ruined Sri Lanka?
When some pattern of behaviour seems inexplicable, the real reason is often history. by Gynne Dyer, The Hamilton Spectator, Canada, September 28, 2024 Gwynne Dyer’s new book is “Intervention Earth: Life-Saving Ideas from the World’s Climate Engineers.” Last year’s book, “The Shortest History of War,” is also still available. It’s hard to know who ruined… Read more »
Manifesto of the Tamil Candidate
Political Anguish of the Tamils . By S.V. Kirubaharan, Tamil Centre for Human Rights, France, September 13, 2024 . (So far, this manifesto has been published only in Tamil. Therefore, if there are any errors in the English terminology used, these must be excused.) . For over a year, the Tamil people have been united… Read more »
Last Chance for Lanka
As the island nation gears up for national polls on September 21 by India Today, New Delhi, September 2024 The presidential polls would give Sri Lanka another chance to make their fortunes with Sajith Premadasa and Ranil Wickremesinghe among the dozen other leaders in the fray for the polls. Video – https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/last-chance-for-lanka-as-the-island-nation-gears-up-for-presidential-polls-on-september-21/vi-AA1pM2wp?ocid=socialshare&cvid=dd3931ff002b40d799101966076a07e9&ei=24 Article – Last… Read more »
Ambassador Who Had Lankan Politics in His Blood
by K.M. de Silva, Sunday Times, Colombo, October 5, 2008 The death occurred on August 30 this year of W. Howard Wriggins, US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives from 1977 to 1979 and well-known scholar who specialised on Sri Lanka and the region during his years at Columbia University whose South Asian Institute… Read more »
Sri Lanka Nears Critical Election
by Michael Kugelman, Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief, Washington, DC, September 11, 2024 Sri Lanka is gearing up for a presidential election on Sept. 21. The Sri Lankan presidency is a powerful post, not a ceremonial one. The race is essentially between three leaders: current President Ranil Wickremesinghe; Sajith Premadasa, a former Wickremesinghe ally who… Read more »
UNHRC: 57th Session
September 9, morning: 1st Meeting – 57th Regular Session of Human Rights Council | UN Web TV ITEM 1: Opening of session ITEM 2: Oral update by the High Commissioner for Human Rights ITEM 2: ID on report of Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar ITEM 2: ID on OHCHR report on Sri Lanka September 9, afternoon:2nd… Read more »
WikiLeaks: EPDP Sold Jaffna Children
Girls To Prostitution Rings And Boys To Slavery by Colombo Telegraph, September 13, 2013 “The children are sold into slavery, usually boys to work camps and girls to prostitution rings, through EPDP’s networks in India and Malaysia. Sunthararaj maintains that children are often smuggled out of the country with the help of a corrupt Customs and Immigration… Read more »
Post-War Sri Lanka: Exploring the Path Not Taken
by Rohini Hensman, Dialectical Anthropology 39, pp. 273-293, April 16, 2015 Introduction Almost immediately after Independence, the government of Sri Lanka enacted legislation depriving Hill-country Tamils of their citizenship and franchise; subsequent governments enacted laws and carried out policies discriminating against and persecuting all Tamil-speaking citizens, with the avowed intention of making Sri Lanka a… Read more »
Response to Indian Foreign Minister’s Remarks by US Tamils
by Tamil Diaspora News, September 1, 2024 The BJP once acknowledged the Tamil genocide, yet now urges support for those responsible. Voting for a Tamil candidate is far from a waste—just as Tamils in Tamil Nadu chose to support their own instead of the BJP. When minorities vote for their own candidates, it is a… Read more »
Is the IMF Setting Sri Lanka Up for a 2nd Car Crash?
by Theo Maret and Brad Setser, FinancialTimes, London, September 5, 20024 Theo Maret is a research analyst at Global Sovereign Advisory and writes a sovereign debt newsletter. Brad Setser is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former Treasury Department official. Sri Lanka is bankrupt and restructuring its debts. But there’s a high… Read more »
The Bitter Fight Over the Meaning of ‘Genocide’
Debates over how to describe conflicts in Gaza, Myanmar and elsewhere are channeling a controversy as old as the word itself. by Linda Kinstler, The New York Times, August 20, 2024 Linda Kinstler is a junior fellow at Harvard’s Society of Fellows and the author of “Come to This Court and Cry: How the Holocaust… Read more »
UNHCHR: Situation of Human Rights in Sri Lanka
Comprehensive report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – Advance unedited version A/HRC/57/19 August 19, 2024 Summary In the present report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council Resolution 51/1, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights provides a comprehensive analysis of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, highlighting some concerning… Read more »
The China Hangover Is Here
by Michael Beckley, The New York Times, August 19, 2024 Opinion | Once the Global Economy’s Savior, China Is Now Its Biggest Threat – The New York Times (nytimes.com) In the 2000s, former President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela bet his country’s economic future on a rising China, securing tens of billions of dollars in investments and loans-for-oil… Read more »
CPA: The Intersectional Trends of Land Conflicts in Sri Lanka
by Centre for Policy Analysis, Colombo, August 20, 2024 The-Intersectional-Trends-of-Land-Conflicts-in-Sri-Lanka.pdf (cpalanka.org) 15 years after the end of the Civil War, Sri Lanka continues to experience deep ethnic divisions and has failed to address the root causes of the conflict that halt moving to a post-conflict society. Unfortunately, the decades-long problem of land has continued in… Read more »
Aragalaya and Accountability
Daily Financial Times editorial, Colombo, August 20, 2024 Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh for 15 years, fled the country on 5 August, marking the pinnacle of a student-led protest campaign that ousted a well-entrenched regime. Since taking charge on 8 August, the interim government, led by Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel peace laureate and… Read more »
‘Himalayan Declaration’ Lays Bare Deep Divide Among Sri Lankan Tamil Groups
Diaspora groups have slammed the Global Tamil Forum for not including them in a recent dialogue with a Buddhist delegation. by Mark S. Cogan, The Diplomat, Arlington, VA, USA, January 3, 2024 Almost 15 years after the Sri Lankan civil war ended, there appears no end to the political divisions, not only between the Sinhalese majority… Read more »
Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1983
by Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence (1981-1984), Vol.I (Report), Colombo, dated September 2002, published April 24, 2003 Commission appointed July 23, 2001 by President Chandrika Kumaratunge Commissioners: Suppiah Sharvananda, Esq. (retired Chief Justice) Sathyaloka Sasita Sahabandu Esq., President’s Counsel Mohammed Mohammed Zuhair Esq., President’s Counsel Part 1 For… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Complex Dance of Sinhala and Tamil Nationalist Politics
With mainstream Sri Lankan parties feeling compelled to pander to Sinhala Buddhist voters, Tamil-led parties have been pushed to take more hardline positions to address Tamil voters’ frustrations – historically and today by Uditha Divapriya, Himal, Colombo, July 30, 2024 At present, the Sri Lankan government is caught in a tricky situation. Elections are slated… Read more »
Tamil Politics in Sri Lanka after R Sampanthan
The elder statesman who never was Sampanthan’s death prompted glowing tributes from Colombo but relative indifference in the Tamil community, which gained nothing from his and the Tamil National Alliance’s compromises with the Sri Lankan state by Mario Arulthas, Madura Rasaratnam, Himal, Colombo, July 10, 2024 “I will make my people ungovernable!” Rajavarothiam Sampanthan exclaimed,… Read more »