Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on Sri Lanka’s presidential elections The Secretary-General congratulates the people of Sri Lanka on the successful conclusion of the presidential election, and welcomes the constitutional transfer of power. The Secretary-General applauds the Sri Lankan Elections Commission for its professionalism in ensuring a peaceful and credible election. He… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
No Justice for Kumar Ponnambalam
No justice for assassinated human rights lawyer Kumar Ponnambalam, 15 years on Fifteen years after Kumar Ponnambalam, a prominent human rights lawyer and leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) was assassinated in a busy Colombo suburb during Chandrika Kumaratunge’s government, his killers have not been brought to justice. Mr Ponnambalam, who was renowned… Read more »
A Century of Silence
by Raffi Khatchadourian, ‘The New Yorker,’ January 5, 2015 …The news of the city’s changed atmosphere came quietly, five or six years ago, with the unlikely talk that Sourp Giragos was going to be rehabilitated as a functioning church—even though there was no congregation for it anymore. Then, in 2011, an item in the Armenian… Read more »
Statement by CM Wigneswaran on Presidential Election
My dear brothers and sisters, We live in confusing times. Oppressed, threatened, intimidated and discriminated against. We are at crossroads where there is no clear sign of resolution of our travails. Which path do we charter? To vote for MR or MS or any other contestant or to boycott the Election. I have grappled with… Read more »
The Logic of Helping the Lesser Evil
One thing is clear. For the Tamils, the upcoming elections are not about a boycott. It is about if Tamil leadership should actively endorse either of the two Sinhala nationalist candidates and campaign. The lack of strategic thinking and inability to think outside the mainstream have been the TNA leadership failures. It was evident in… Read more »
On the ‘Known Devil’ and Sri Lanka’s Choices
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s call to Tamil voters during a rally in the North this week to vote for the ‘known devil’ is typical of the unabashedly unapologetic tone of his election campaign. After four years of relentlessly rolling back Sri Lanka’s constitutional freedoms and the Rule of Law, much needed humility would have been well… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Violent Buddhists
BANGALORE, India — When I met Watareka Vijitha Thero in early 2014 in a suburb of Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, he had been in hiding for nearly five months. The gentle-voiced monk had spoken out against anti-Muslim fearmongering by a hard-line group called the Buddhist Power Force, known by its Sinhalese initials B.B.S. Mr…. Read more »
TNA Decides to Support Maithri
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which extended its support to common opposition candidate Maitripala Sirisena, said today the election of a new president would be a positive step towards the evolution of a political solution to the national question.At a news conference at which the TNA stance was announced, party leader R. Sampanthan said his… Read more »
Postwar Sri Lanka’s Awkward Peace
KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka — Two men were riding the train known as the Queen of Jaffna as it rattled through the haunted battlegrounds of Sri Lanka’s civil war. One of them, Nisal Kavinda, a 20-year-old man from the Sinhalese ethnic group, was jubilant. He had wanted to ride this train since 2009, when President Mahinda Rajapaksadeclared… Read more »
GTF Statement on Presidential Election
GTF Statement on Presidential Election – 2015 v Final Issued for immediate release PRESS STATEMENT 24 December 2014 Tamils should freely exercise their franchise at the upcoming Sri Lanka Presidential Election Global Tamil Forum (GTF) strongly urges the Tamil people in Sri Lanka to use every vote carefully during the January 8 Presidential Election. Tamil… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Electoral Dysfunction
by J. S. Tissainayagam, ‘Foreign Policy,’ Washington, DC, December 24, 2014 On Jan. 8, two years ahead of schedule, Sri Lanka will hold a presidential election that could help restore democracy by scrapping the country’s authoritarian presidency and replacing it with a strong parliament. Real change, however, seems unlikely. While the political opposition has… Read more »
A Chance to Close Sri Lanka’s One-Family Show
by Razeen Sally, ‘The Wall Street Journal,’ New York, December 15, 2014 When President Mahinda Rajapaksa called a snap election last month in Sri Lanka, it appeared he would cruise to a third term. But a hitherto feeble and divided opposition has since rallied behind a common presidential candidate for the Jan. 8 vote. Only… Read more »
Bilingual Nationhood, Canadian-Style
TORONTO — AS the United States gears up for a political brawl over immigration next year, one of the concerns shaping the debate will be the fear that English-speaking Americans will be culturally and linguistically overwhelmed by newcomers, many of them Spanish-speaking. An example of what is in store was the autumn cyberspat between the Telemundo… Read more »
ICG: Sri Lanka’s Presidential Election
by International Crisis Group, Brussels, December 9, 2014 ICG Presidential Election 2015 Sri Lanka’s upcoming presidential election promises more competition than was initially anticipated. But with that comes a great risk of violence. Long-term stability and post-war reconciliation can only be achieved through a peaceful election resulting in a government committed to serving the interests… Read more »
CM Wigneswaran Speech at World Hindu Congress
Wigneswaran_Address_Hindu_Congress_N_Amended In Post war Sri Lanka there has been a virulent rise of religious intolerance particularly towards minority religions by groups that enjoy the protection of the Government. Such has been their activities that His Holiness the Dalai Lama issued a public plea to stop religious persecution in the name of Buddhism. The power of… Read more »
Tamil Civil Society Forum
TCSF Press release AGM Tamil Civil Society Forum formally constituted A loosely organised network of Tamil Civil Society Activists from the North-East of Sri Lanka who had been functioning for the past five years under the leadership of the Mannar Bishop have now formally constituted themselves as an organization – the Tamil Civil Society Forum… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Presidential Race Gets Interesting
High-level defections are troubling developments for President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The Tamil Elephant in the Green (Blue?) Room
Kalana Senaratne’s characteristically perceptive article on the implications of Maithripala Sirisena’s common candidacy for the upcoming Presidential election flags the Tamil question: what role do Tamils and issues of concern to them play in the politics of the election? Kalana deems the Tamils the ‘forgotten other’ of the upcoming campaign, noting that the contest is… Read more »
A Legacy for Generations
Twenty-five years ago today, the Tamil nation’s day of remembrance – Maaveerar Naal, was first commemorated at an event in the Vanni. Today, the commemoration of the nation’s fallen heroes has spread across the world, taken by those who were forced to flee their homeland in the North-East. This year also marks a significant anniversary… Read more »
Pirapaharan at Sixty
by Karthik RM, November 21, 2014 Is Pirapaharan dead? Ten years back, TamilNet senior editor and military analyst Taraki Sivaram wrote a brilliant piece on the political legacy of Pirapaharan at fifty. Come 26 November this year, the founder-leader of the LTTE and one of the most brilliant military minds of South Asia will turn… Read more »