By Wakeley Paul, Esq., October 4, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/577.html The SLFP’s initial flap over the Interim Self-Governing Administration (ISGA) proposals, suggesting that the proposals are nothing but a stepping stone toward separation, is one more example of the Sinhalese effort to blunt their sins and desire to perpetuate the concept of Sinhalese supremacy. The Sinhalese also… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
Response to President Kumaratunga’s UN Address
by M. Nadarajan, October 4, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/576.html The headline in the Daily News reporting the President’s speech quoted her as saying “My government has got a clear mandate for peace.” She said that at numerous elections her government had obtained that mandate. She did not say whether that included the last elections of April 2004, when her… Read more »
The Worst Weapon of Mass Destruction
Thinakural Editorial, Colombo, Sept. 22, 2004 Translation by M. Thiru sangam.org/articles/view2/573.html A Summit among world leaders to discuss World Hunger took place at the UN Headquarters last Monday (20/09/04), the day before the commencement of the United Nation’s 59th General Assembly session. More than 100 nations participated in this summit, of which more than 50… Read more »
TNA’s Press Release on President’s Speech at UN General Assembly
24 September 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/572.html The Parliamentary Group of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) met on September 23 2004 to consider the statements made by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge relating to “Peace Negotiations” in Sri Lanka during the course of her address to the 59th session of the United Nations General Assembly. The President has stated… Read more »
Political Chaos in Sri Lanka
by V Gunaratnam, September 30, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/571.html There are new imperatives driving Sri Lankan politics at this time, as it struggles to move the peace process forward and around the corner. But it is difficult to make out anything, because the political scene is like a huge iceberg: only the tip is visible but there… Read more »
Tide? Or Ivory Snow? Public Power in the Age of Empire
by Arundhati Roy August 24, 2004 Transcript of full speech by Arundhati Roy in San Francisco, California on August 16th, 2004. The editor and the Sangam do not agree with everything in this article, but it is a powerful alternative view, with a global persective not found in many other places. I’ve been asked to… Read more »
The Persecuted, in Chains
The New York Times editorial, September 25, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/567.html In jails and prisons across the United States, thousands of people are detained who have never been accused of crimes. The guards treat them like criminals, and the criminals they bunk with often abuse them. They are held for months, sometimes even years, but unlike the criminals,… Read more »
Elagupillai’s Pongu Tamil Speech
Full Script of Speech By Prof. Elagu . V. Elagupillai at Pongu Thamil in Queen’s Park, Toronto, September 25, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/566.html Members of the Tamil Students Association, Vicar General Fr. Emmanuel, Special Guests, Federal Provincial and Local Government authorities, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am honoured to be with you this evening at this historic Pongu… Read more »
American Policy of Disengagement from Sri Lanka
The American Policy of Ostensible Disengagement from Sri Lanka by Wakeley Paul, Esq., September 24, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/565.html American leaders and the American media have a tendency to distance themselves from ‘third world’ concerns. America’s daily worries probably sound like trivial squabbles to third world occupants. The heated debates over abortion and the right to life;… Read more »
A TO Z of Conflict Resolution in Sri Lanka
by Sachithanandam Sathananthan*, September 22, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/563.html The Norwegian facilitator Mr Eric Solheim was back in Colombo last week to explore the scope for re-starting “talks” between the Sinhala State and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Almost simultaneously India’s Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Arun Prakash, who came on a five-day official visit,… Read more »
International Community Can Help Forge Peace
by Ana Pararajasingham, September 23, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/562.html According to Satchithananthan Sathananthan (“International community sharpens its knives against Tamils“ published in sangam. org-), the primary aim of the international community is ‘to undercut the Tamils’ political support for the LTTE and emasculate the military power of the Tamil national movement’. In support of this argument he cites several… Read more »
ISGA: Legitimate, Practical & with Precedence
by Arvalan, September 23, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/561.html On October 31, 2003 the LTTE, on behalf of the Tamil people, announced their proposal for an Interim Self-Governing Administration (ISGA) of the Northeast of the island called Sri Lanka. This proposed ISGA is a significant step toward a peaceful resolution of the decades-long conflict between the Tamil and… Read more »
Views of Thamilchelvan that the JVP has to Take into Consideration
Thinakural editorial, September 16, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/559.html The political powers in Southern SriLanka who are against the peace efforts,are carrying out propaganda about the ISGA proposals put forward by the LTTE. This propaganda has by and large resulted in a wrong impression among the Sinhalese masses about the fundamental objectives of the ISGA proposals. The mass of… Read more »
Peace in Sri Lanka: Power Sharing
Peace in Sri Lanka – Some Thoughts Part III – Power Sharing by R. Cholan, September 22, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/558.html In Part II, I had shown how the federal constitutions in the three examples confer the powers to regional governments by default. Powers of the central governments are defined, and those of the regional governments are… Read more »
Peace in Sri Lanka: Fear of Secession
Peace in Sri Lanka – Some Thoughts Part II – Fear of Secession by R. Cholan, September 21, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/557.html The Sinhala opposition to the ISGA proposal is not a new phenomenon. The views being expressed currently about the ISGA are exactly the same as what has been said about ‘federalism’ for the last fifty… Read more »
Peace in Sri Lanka: Equality
Peace in Sri Lanka – Some Thoughts Part I – Equality. by R. Cholan, September 20, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/556.html No one expected the peace talks in Sri Lanka to progress without a hitch. But, the manner in which the process has stalled, without a single concrete step beyond the December 2002 Oslo accord, and with a… Read more »
Endless Struggle against Terrorism
Hallmark of new world disorder by Tom Plate / Syndicated columnist, Seattle Times, September 17, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/555.html The dialectic — who’s a terrorist? who’s a freedom-fighter? — is not merely academic. Some of the world’s hot spots may be susceptible to cooling down if we break away from straitjacketed thinking. A perfect example, in fact,… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Economy in Shambles
by K. Mylvaganam, September 20, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/554.html There is no doubt that the economic situation of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) has never been as low as it is now. To add fuel to the fire, the soaring of petroleum prices is affecting the Sri Lankan economy very hard. The price of crude oil… Read more »
US Blasts Sri Lanka on Religious Freedom
Just like the US State Dept.’s annual Human Rights Report, the Report on International Religious Freedom is a summary of events this government department has heard about from its embassy in Sri Lanka and other sources. Sri Lanka has been put on the list because of concern by Christians in the US for the well-being… Read more »
Sri Lanka Scene: Stabilizing the Ceasefire Agreement
Weekly Review by T. Sabaratnam, September 15, 2004 Norwegian special peace envoy Erik Solheim is back in Colombo. “I’m here mainly to stabilize the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA),” he told media in Colombo. Stabilizing the CFA was the main subject Solheim discussed in Colombo and Jaffna since his arrival on Monday night. That will be the… Read more »