Posts Categorized: Politics

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 »

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 »

No Fire Zone Campaign

Holding the Sri Lankan government accountable for war crimes during a hidden war by No Fire Zone film producers, UK, December 1, 2014 No Fire Zone campaign December 2014 The final awful months of the Sri Lankan Civil War, told by the people who lived through it. Director Callum Macrae, Outsider Films Trailer: https://youtu.be/JKsp0pAQqvo?si=cDnA3vf5bE3PivZx 50… 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 »

CM Wigneswaran Speech in India

Wigneswaran Kannabiran Memorial Lecture Nov 2014 After brief intro in Tamil, CM – Justice CW Wigneswaran’s speech is in English.    

These Are My Humble Requests To Gotabaya

*Speech made by R. Sampanthan on the 4th of November 2014 in parliament We are discussing today the Votes of the Ministry of Defence, the Minister of Defence being His Excellency President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Secretary to the Ministry being his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who rumour has it will probably be a Member of… Read more »

Cosmetic Fixes

by Taylor Dibbert, ‘Foreign Policy,’ Washington, DC, October 31, 2014 SOUTH ASIA Sri Lanka’s twenty-six-year civil war was a brutal conflict that pitted the Sri Lankan government forces against the Tamil Tigers, a group that fought for a separate state in the country’s northern and eastern provinces. Though the government defeated the Tamil Tigers in… Read more »