Full text of speech below and at http://tamildiplomat.com/npc-cm-calls-for-solution-on-the-basis-of-shared-sovereignty-within-merged-north-and-east/ COLOMBO: The Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’ Tamil-majority Northern Province has called for a new constitution which will be based on the principle of shared sovereignty between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority within a united Lanka. Giving the keynote address at a seminar on constitution making… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
Sri Lanka’s Circuitous Road to Reform
Sri Lanka’s recent democratic gains are real; so are the challenges that lie ahead. Sri Lanka has seen significant political drama over the past 12 months. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the previous president who ruled for a decade was unexpectedlydefeated during last January’s presidential election. Voters reiterated their desire for change during August parliamentary polls, though Rajapaksa… Read more »
Peace Process Would Have Benefitted from Greater Intl Effort
From left: Bharath Gopalaswamy, Director of the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, moderates a discussion with Mark Salter, author of To End a Civil War; Erik Solheim, a former chief negotiator in the Sri Lankan peace process; and Richard L. Armitage, who has served as Deputy Secretary of State in the George W. Bush administration,… Read more »
Starvation in Syria Galvanizes U.N.
by Somini Sengupta, ‘The New York Times,’ January 15, 2016 UNITED NATIONS — The images of gaunt, hollow-eyed children in three besieged Syrian towns this week prompted even the usually cautious Ban Ki-moon to bluntly and publicly declare that the people starving civilians on the battlefield were committing war crimes. “Tomorrow,” Mr. Ban, the secretary… Read more »
We Need to Jettison Inherited Prejudices and Wrong Notions
by ‘Adaderana,’ Colombo, January 15, 2015 Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran says that an inclusive society cannot be built upon counter-terrorism mindset and state security perspectives and that a heavy military presence in the province lays the foundation for violence. Addressing the National Thaipongal Festival in Jaffna today, he said that the 16th goal… Read more »
PTA is Now an Expired Act – PM
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says that his British counterpart David Cameron visited Sri Lanka during a “dark period” and that the government is inviting him to return now that the sun is shining on the country. “British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Sri Lanka during a dark period. We are now publicly inviting him to… Read more »
Time is Running Out
by TamilNet, January 13, 2016 Colombo regime, which came to power claiming ‘good governance’, has failed to address the urgent demands of releasing 200 Tamil political prisoners, reveal the whereabouts of more than 20,000 people in the past and the genocidal military occupying the Tamil homeland continues to seize lands from Mannaar to Ampaa’rai. “Unless… Read more »
A New Era for a Renewed Sri Lanka
As I walked through Trincomalee’s Koneswaran and Colombo’s Gangaramaya temples last month, learning of their ancient and important histories, I was struck by the strength and resilience of the Sri Lankan people. Over many centuries and across many generations, Sri Lankans have turned to their faiths and cultures to endure and overcome many challenges. They… Read more »
MP Sumanthiran Speech on New Constitution
http://www.tnaseythi.com/Gen_Constitution/Constitution-Sumanthiran-12012016.html Thank you, Presiding Member, for the opportunity to speak on this historic occasion. I say historic, because we have a Resolution before the House that has been signed by the Honorable Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Hon. Nimal Sripala De Silva on behalf of the SLFP, the Hon. Lakshman Kiriella the Leader of the House,… Read more »
Can a New Constitution Heal Sri Lanka’s Wounds?
With Rohan Edirasinghe, Sutharshan Sukumaran & Alan Keenan.
Need For A Time-Bound Process
The government is set to make some headway in the reconciliation process this month but the failure to set deadlines to complete the process has raised some eyebrows. The government, like the former regime, has been saying as of late that it needs to be given time to address the issues at hand. However going… Read more »
Do Justice, No Divisions
As the Leader of the Opposition and leader of the Tamil National Alliance, R. Sampanthan holds a unique position to contribute towards reshaping Sri Lankan’s political culture and constitutional parameters within which the government should operate. Sampanthan, a leader of coalition of minority parities, is the second such leader to be elected as the Opposition… Read more »
What If the Tamil Tigers Weren’t Labelled as ‘Terrorists’?
How labeling a group influences the standards of civilian protection in wartime is a pertinent question. by Ambika Kaushik, ‘The Diplomat,’ Tokyo, July 24, 2015 The elections in Sri Lanka next month come just ahead of a much-anticipated report on the alleged war crimes by prime ministerial candidate and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government during… Read more »
Tamils Need to Act Now
by Naga Narendran, December 27, 2015 The history and the sorry saga of the Tamils of the North-East of Sri Lanka in the last 60 years demands high level of vigilance, to be aware of the extent of progress being made and its context. Broken promises of the past require the people to be far… Read more »
Sinhalisation of the North-East
http://www.sinhalisation.com/ About Since time immemorial the island of Sri Lanka has been largely divided into two linguistic regions, the Tamil North-East and the Sinhala south. The North-East region encompasses the districts of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, Mannar, Batticaloa and the littoral areas of Trincomalee and Amparai. It is a contiguous region that has traditionally been inhabited by Tamil speakers. This… Read more »
U.S. Under Secretary Thomas Shannon Speech
http://srilanka.usembassy.gov/sp-16dec15.html Speech at Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations & Strategic Studies, Colombo Good morning, and to all of you Ayubowan, Vanakkam. Thank you for being here. It’s a tremendous honor and a great pleasure to be here today. Thank you, Mr. Minister, for your very kind introduction. To be at this respected institute, named… Read more »
Sri Lanka Talks Big on Human Rights Day
Ruki Fernando, a human rights activist, says that the government’s decision to sign the convention “indicates interest…nothing more.” Fernando also mentions that, on other occasions, the Sri Lankan government “has ratified treaties and then brought in enabling legislation.” Sri Lanka still hasn’t criminalized enforced disappearances.
TNA Statement on Penal Code Amendment Regarding Hate Speech
The Tamil National Alliance is deeply concerned about the proposed Penal Code (Amendment) Bill placed on the Order Paper of Parliament on 11 December 2015. The said Bill was placed on the Order Paper by the Minister of Justice. The Bill seeks to introduce a new provision (Section 291C) to the Penal Code, No. 11… Read more »
Sri Lanka vs Human Rights: Encouraging Signs, More To Be Done
As International Human Rights Day was commemorated last Thursday, a top UN official said that there were encouraging signs that Sri Lanka will deal with human rights concerns related to the war but the new government was not willing to go all the way. Christof Heyns, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or… Read more »
Looming Dangers
Whether it would be possible to achieve consensus on the focal areas of the new arrangement – devolution of power, electoral reform and the replacement of the executive presidency – will be possible remains to be seen. …
While matters like replacing the executive presidency and a new electoral system can be relatively less complicated, devolution will undoubtedly be a very tricky problem given the state of play of current politics. There is no doubt that the minorities played a major role in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defeat on January 8. It is widely accepted that a minority of the majority – meaning of the Sinhalese – and a majority of the minority (the Tamils) ensured Rajapaksa’s defeat. Thus there will be the ever present danger that the kind of opportunistic politics that we saw in the post-1956 years when the UNP did not permit Mr. Bandaranaike to implement the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact and the SLFP and its allies sabotaged Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake’s efforts to reach an accord with the Tamils (Dudley-ge badey masala vadai, remember?) will recur. Doubtlessly national reconciliation is a top priority facing this country. Will the devolution proposals in a new constitution, rather than the forthcoming local elections early next year, be the opportunity the Rajapaksa faction of the SLFP/UPFA is waiting for? Hopefully not, is all we can say at this present moment.