tw news-features

by D.B.S. Jeyaraj

The significance of the date September 26th has become another example of differences in perception illustrating the ethnic divide in Sri Lanka. To most members of the Sinhala community it is the day on which Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike died in 1959 after being shot in Colombo the previous day by a Buddhist monk. To many members of the Tamil community it is the day on which Rasiah Parthiban alias Thileepan died in 1987 at Nallur after a 12 day fast unto death campaign protesting actions of the Indian and Sri Lankan Governments.

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party has been for many decades observing Sep 26th as a day honouring the memory of its founder SWRD Bandaranaike.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization has also been commemorating the day and even the fortnight preceding it in honour of Thileepan.

In recent times two other incidents have added to the date’s significance in LTTE annals. It was on September 26th in 1990 that Bhanu the LTTE Jaffna commander of the time hoisted the tiger flag atop the ramparts of the Jaffna Fort after the armed forces abandoned it. Incidently the Present Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse and current army commander Sarath Fonseka were involved in this evacuation then.

The other incident was in 2001 when senior LTTE leader Vaithilingam Sornalingam alias “Col” Shankar was killed in a claymore mine explosion on Sep 26th while he was motoring along the Oddusuddan - Puthukudiyiruppu road in the Mullaitheevu district. Shankar was the man who pioneered the LTTE’s airwing and a close associate of tiger supremo Velupillai Prabakharan. The Army’s Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) or deep penetration squad was allegedly responsible for the assassination.Nowadays the tigers honour Shankar also on the 26th.

[Performance at an Arts Festival held at a Sea Tiger base on Sep 19, 2005]

Re-appearance

Among ceremonies held this year to observe Thileepan day was the release on Sep 26th of an audio CD titled “Siragu Viritha Puligal” (tigers unfurl wings)consisting of songs about the LTTE’s air wing.This particular event was held at the “Maaveerar Mandapam” (great heroes hall) in Puthukudiyiruppu.While the widows of Lt. Col Chutta and Lt. Col Kunjan lit the special lamps it was the lot of “Col” Shankar’s widow Kuha to do the honours by receiving the first disc of the newly released CD. What was more important as well as interesting was the identity of the person who released the CD officially and handed it over ceremonially to Kuha: Read The Full Article here - Sea Tiger Chief Soosai “Surfaces” After Accident at Sea, in transCurrents.com

By Dr. T T Sreekumar

One of the important issues in the Sethusamudram debates is the near total obliteration of the Sri Lankan perspective(s) by the Indian Media. Understanding the Sri Lankan perspective(s) is critical for two reasons.

First, it is more than evident that the canal will be in India but its impacts would cross Indian territories with the suspended sediments and dredged toxins affecting the bio-domains surrounding Sri Lanka. Second, given the shared concerns of food security, arms race, unresolved national struggles (Elam, Kashmir etc.) and continuing sectarian social conflicts in the region, an India-centric view on bilateral and multilateral issues such as defence, environment, foreign policy and economic growth is politically inadequate.

To develop and uphold a larger South Asian perspective on the Sethusamudram project appears to be as critical as the need for such a position on the India-US nuclear deal: Read the Full Article in FederalIdea.com

50,000 individuals from around the worldwide will win Green Card

The 2009 Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery will be formally declared open in Washington, DC on October 3, 2007, the US Embassy in Sri Lanka announced on Sep 28th.

This program allows randomly selected applicants to migrate to the United States on an expedited basis, provided they meet all the criteria. A person may only enter the lottery if he or she has:

1) Citizenship of a qualifying country (Sri Lanka and the Maldives both qualify); and

2) Either a high school equivalent education (Six GCE O-Levels including compulsory subjects) or work experience within the past five years in a profession that requires at least two years of training or experience to perform.

Individuals wishing to participate in the visa lottery are strongly urged to apply early to avoid any possible delays. 50,000 individuals will be selected for the lottery worldwide.

The lottery registration period will be October 03 to December 2, 2007. Registration for the Diversity Visa Lottery is free. The lottery will be conducted entirely by electronic means over the internet. Paper entries will no longer be accepted. The State Department has established a website for the submission of entries, which can be accessed at: Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery Instructions

Successfully registered entries will result in the display of a confirmation screen containing the applicant’s name, date of birth, country of chargeability (the country the applicant enters the lottery from), and a date and time stamp. This confirmation screen can be printed as proof of registration in the lottery. An applicant may only register once; more than one entry will result in automatic disqualification.

The Department of State Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky, will notify the lottery Winners by mail (NOT e-mail) between May and July, 2008. If they qualify, they will then have a one window in which they may migrate to the United State. Under last year’s Diversity Visa lottery program, 318 cases qualified for immigrant visa interviews.

No fee is charged to enter the annual Diversity Visa program. The U.S. Government employs no outside consultants or private services to operate the visa lottery program. Any companies or intermediaries who offer assistance to prepare DV casework for applicants do so without the authority or consent of the U.S. Government. Beware of persons or companies making claims of affiliation with the US. Government or promising improved odds of selection.

A qualified entry submitted electronically directly by an applicant has an equal chance of being selected by the computer at the Kentucky Consular Center as does an entry submitted electronically through a paid intermediary who completes the entry for the applicant. Use of any outside intermediary or assistance to prepare a DV entry is entirely at the applicant’s discretion.

Every entry received during the lottery registration period will have an equal random chance of being selected within its region, However, receipt of more than one entry per person will disqualify the person from registration, regardless of the source of the entry.

By C. Silva

Addressing the 62nd UN General Assembly in New York, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that his government was committed to seeking a ‘negotiated and honourable’ end to the conflict and that the All-Party Representative Committee was working successfully towards that goal.

It was re-assuring to read such comments given that doubts had risen about the President’s sincerity to resolve the issue after the recent military successes. The UNP has not helped matters by moving from its stated position of federal to unitary for the sole purpose of gaining support to topple the government. The minorities are left wondering whether this issue and its causes would ever be resolved.

What are the root causes behind the conflict – is it the language issue, communal and religious tolerance, human rights and the right to the life of others? Successive governments have tried but failed to address the grievances of the minorities and some brushed aside these grievances as fabrications.

In spite of the difficulties non-Sinhala speakers faced due to the non-implementation of the Official Languages provisions, the argument was made that such problems did not exit. We need to promote multilingualism, social, political and cultural contacts across ethnic boundaries as an essential ingredient for national unity and for the avoidance of communal divisions.

Even today if we address these grievances the ethnic problem could be resolved and the conflict would come to an end.

Sri Lanka has been beset with foreign representatives and others passing comments about the conflict. In part, it is our fault as we have politicised our missions abroad and have handed over the propaganda initiative to the LTTE.

Our Foreign Ministry should have been proactive rather than re-active as at present. The recent political appointments to our missions abroad do not help to regain the initiative as the appointees are ‘planted’ through influence.

The Foreign Service must be a Closed Service, staffed by career diplomats and the recruitment to the service must be based on merit.

Finally, the armed conflict will continue until such time that all parties re-examine the whole ethnic issue afresh and eliminate the causes of the problem and bring about peace.

By Shelton Peiris

“A little bit of authoritarianism will do the country good”

The right to strike is an archaic notion that originated in America where workers were killed by disgruntled Employers using thugs wielding clubs and knuckle dusters. Under Lenin of Russia the mass strike was used effectively against the czars and land owners to set up a worker’s regime. It did not last long for the worker’s regime was unimaginably corrupt. Today it is capitalist rule and ownership private or by the State. Charles Dickens who wrote during the period of the Industrial Revolution in Britain succinctly portrayed the plight of workers in his classic ‘Oliver Twist’ Scrooge was the hard task master.

In the scenario of modern Sri Lanka, a developing economy in which three parties are the actors; the Government, the Employers and the Employees. A milieu of close understanding amongst the concerned parties is more than just desirable, but is an inescapable prerequisite. With the development envisaged all concerned parties must put their shoulders to the wheel and push with all their patriotic might .What is unfortunate for this country is that it has a parliamentary opposition that does not fully understand that it is part of this developing country, and that it too would benefit being citizens of Lanka.

Scoring political points by opposing all suggestion by the government, and inciting workers to strike for non existing grievances is the fools way to power, which if accepted by the working gentry will only result in a dictatorship being foist on a country with a record of many thousand years of lenient democracy.

Workers and employers have a duty by the country. Their problems should be settled amicably without damage to the economy. Discussing problems is the sane way for all concerned .The Trade Union Ordinance should be changed deleting the ‘Right to Strike’ in its place, first negotiations and in the event of a deadlock, arbitration as the last resort .A responsible government together with the employers should bear in mind that the worker bears the workload. It is his sweat and brawn that carries the country forward.

A developing country like ours can ill afford to lose working hours by wild cat strikes. What Sri Lanka urgently needs, as visiting Malaysian President Mahathir Mohamed said is a little bit of authoritarianism will do the country good.

by S.P. Samy

The Indo-Lanka Accord signed by Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on July 29, 1987 completed 20 years recently.

Under the provisions of this accord we have a name-sake centre to periphery power devolution mechanism in the provincial councils to date, but these councils remain not independent, but mechanisms to implement orders from the centre and whatever powers envisaged to be devolved to the periphery continue to be retained by the centre. In terms of men, materials, and finance the provincial councils have become an additional burden on the economy of the country.

With moves to alter the demographic pattern of the Northern and Eastern Provinces which have been recognised as the traditional home land of the Tamils under the Accord, continuing unabated; through the eviction of Tamils from their residences under the guise of establishing high security zones in those provinces; covert settlement of Sinhala people, and then the recent Supreme Court ruling which ordered the de-merger of the provinces, the Tamil homeland concept has come to be threatened.

These were among other things, the irritants from the accord as per forces hostile to it. From day one, attempts have been made to find excuses to dilute the accord qualitatively instead of accepting it as a solid foundation on which to find a solution to the ethnic conflict and restore peace and harmony to the country.

At one stage, even the people of both these provinces who welcomed the IPKF whole heartedly as their saviours at the beginning, became hostile to it, branding it as an army of occupation. The hostility was so high that when the Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a female LTTE suicide bomber, the Jaffna and Batticaloa families in Colombo received the information by lighting Chinese crackers.

Even in the geo-political front, India’s belief that it had through the accord, effectively kept the Sri Lankan government from by-passing it towards forces hostile to India, has been proved too good to be true.

The successive post-accord Sri Lankan governments have time and again acted with scant respect to this aspect while giving convenient excuses for doing so. The latest incident being the meeting between the Sri Lankan defence secretary and the Indian authorities, where it was reported that the Sri Lankan defence secretary warned his Indian counterpart that if no military assistance was available from India, Sri Lanka would have to go to either Pakistan or China.

Ailing and feeble from the inception, at its 20th year the accord is sinking, leaving nothing for anybody to be proud of.