by M. Nadarajan, December 4, 2004 Those of us who live in the United States of America, arguably the greatest country in the world and certainly the richest country, take a lot of things for granted. America also claims to be the most democratic country in the world, and preaches to the world about how… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
Interview with Graham Allen MP
for Nottingham North Confluence: You led an all party Parliamentary delegation to Sri Lanka recently. Can you give us a broad brush picture of the current state of play in the peace process in that country as you observed it? Graham Allen: We were pleased to see that most political parties are getting involved in the peace… Read more »
Sethusamuderam Project: Economic & Environmental Impact
Reasons for the Construction of the Canal and its Economic & Environmental Impact on Sri Lanka by Donald Jayantha Gnanakone, Los Angeles, December 2, 2004 The past three months has seen such a flurry of activity and controversy never seen before in Sri Lanka, since the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Pact by Rajiv Gandhi… Read more »
Letter from a Youth to the LTTE
Dear Mr V. Prabakaran, Mr S.P Thamilchelvan and the other Officials of the East and North of the LTTE, This is a statement of a student, age 18 (Social Juridical Worker / Low Lawyer) of the Royal Kingdom of The Netherlands. At the first place I want to congratulate all of you with achieving and… Read more »
Rebuttal to H.L. de Silva’s views on the ISGA
I in ISGA is for Interim Self-Governing Authority by Prof. C. Suriyakumaran, Sunday Observer, Colombo, November 21, 2005 sangam.org/articles/view2/670.html H.L. de Silva PC, in his denunciations of the LTTE-proposed ISGA on the occasion of the launching of S.L. Gunasekera’s ‘Abomination’, has allowed the ‘authorship’ of the ISGA and the politics of its follow up, like… Read more »
We Have to Live a Language to Use it
by Janadas Devan, The Straits Times, Singapore, November 29, 2004 ‘THO’ I call them Mine, I know that they are not Mine.’ The English critic F.R. Leavis liked to cite that remark of William Blake about his works to point to the essential impersonality of literature: Blake ‘meant that when the artist is creatively successful,… Read more »
Response to Reuters Article on Prabakaran Turning 50
Media Bias is hurting the peace process between Sri Lanka and Tamils by R Shanmugananthan, Australia, November 28, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/666.html Nowadays, when you read news supplied by international news wires, one automatically looks for the other side of the story. Such is the one-sided nature of news reports. The old adage that there are two sides… Read more »
Annual Heroes’ Day Speech by Pirapaharan
from LTTE Peace Secretariat, November 27, 2004 “TAMIL TIGERS WILL LAUNCH FREEDOM STRUGGLE IF PEACE TALKS ARE FURTHER DELAYED” – LTTE LEADER The leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Mr Velupillai Pirapaharan, in his annual statement marking Heroes’ Day, cautioned the Sri Lanka government that his organisation would be compelled to launch the… Read more »
Velupillai Pirapaharan Turns Fifty Today
Ethnic Politics By Taraki (aka D. Sivaram), Daily Mirror, Colombo, November 26, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/663.html It is not my intention here to interrupt the unceasing labours of those who love to hate him. There is little I can add to the invectives that Sinhala nationalist politicians, academics, opinion makers and editorialists relentlessly heap on the LTTE… Read more »
Letter from Singapore
by Pranay Gupte, November 19, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/661.html Why am I sceptical that there isn’t exactly going to be an exodus from India to Singapore? Precisely because of what that Indian cabinet minister told me. Singapore can attract all the cheap coolie labour it might want, but the word has gotten around in the Indian professional… Read more »
Plantation Tamils – The Oppressed People of Sri Lanka
By S. Makenthiran, B.A., FCCA, November 21, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/653.html Immigration in the nineteenth century In Sri Lanka live one of the most oppressed communities in the world. They are the plantation Tamils living in the central hill country. This unfortunate community has been treated like sub-humans by the successive Sinhalese governments that have been in… Read more »
Maya Arulpragasam’s World
Bingo in Swansea by SASHA FRERE-JONES, The New Yorker Issue of 2004-11-22, Posted 2004-11-15 sangam.org/articles/view2/651.html “World music” is a category that does nobody any favors. Entirely disparate performers, like the dapper Brazilian singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso and the African blues guitarist Ali Farka Toure, get lumped together in American record stores simply because they don’t sing… Read more »
Open Letter to the International Community
by Wakely Paul, November 20, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/650.html Re: SRI LANKA The article in the Colombo, Sri Lanka newspaper The Island entitled “ALL LANKAN EGGS IN INDIAN BASKET” on November 10, 2004 reveals India’s renewed effort to extend its military influence into Sri Lanka as it did in the 80’s and early 90’s. At that time the Indians… Read more »
A Set of Killings in the East
To The Editor, Sangam.org — The TamilNet news website of 18th November reported two killings in the East within a space of 14 hours. The first was the killing of a political worker of the LTTE at 9.45 PM on Wednesday by gunmen suspected to be paramilitary operatives working with the Sri Lanka military intelligence… Read more »
Conflict over ‘Rights’ Stalls Sri Lankan Peace Process
by P K Balachandran, Hindustan Times, November 15, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/647.html One of the basic reasons for the conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the rest of the world is the difference of opinion on whether ‘group rights’ should take precedence over ‘individual rights.’ This conflict is a major factor stalling the… Read more »
A Victory, But Little Is Gained
by DARYL G. PRESS and BENJAMIN VALENTINO, The New York Times op-ed, November 17, 2004 Does any of this sound familiar to Sangam readers? sangam.org/articles/view2/644.html Hanover, N.H. — The textbook urban assault on Falluja reflected well on the dedication, training and equipment of the American military. Unfortunately, it has not brought the United States appreciably… Read more »
All Lankan Eggs in Indian Basket?
The Island, Colombo, November 10, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/643.html The joint Indo- Sri Lanka statement issued after the visit of President Chandrika Kumaratunga to New Delhi and the proposed Defence Co-operation Agreement together with complementary agreements such as on Pallaly Airport are being hailed in all quarters here, except by the LTTE. There is much satisfaction because… Read more »
Tigers to Part Ways for Want of Southern Consensus?
by Taraki (aka D.Sivaram), Daily Mirror, Colombo, November 17, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/641.html A military solution to Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict remains a very real option today although we are almost into three years of a fairly stable no-war atmosphere. In large measure this is due to persistent beliefs and perceptions in the Sinhala polity about the… Read more »
Peace Puzzle
by V. Gunaratnam, November 17, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/640.html The Sri Lanka government’s peace motives remain a puzzle to this day, because of the endless roadblocks and delays the peace process has been subjected to. Twenty long and bloody years have gone by since hostilities began, but the Sinhala leaders still can’t find it in their hearts… Read more »
The Sri Lankan Peace Talks and the ISGA Proposals
by M. Nadarajan, November 17, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/639.html Newspapermen and many governments continue to give their views on the peace process, spouting out nonsense without, in most instances, any knowledge of what they are speaking about or the background to the problem. In order to make any meaningful comments, one should look at the past, the… Read more »