Fabian Schokman
Over the course of this last week, what Sri Lanka has witnessed is a teledrama, not too different from the teledramas that your grandmother, mother and maids watch. An elaborate script designed to draw the gullible into a daily melodrama to take their attention away from the base of the struggle unfolding all around them.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, democratic measures, disparagement, governance, legal issues, life stories, patriotism, performance, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, taking the piss, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, vengeance
Michael Roberts
The four-volume edition of DOCUMENTS OF THE CEYLON NATIONAL CONGRESS was presented by the Department of National Archives in 1977 and has been out of stock for some time now.
Haris De Silva — Deputy Director, DNA in the 1970s
Volume ONE contains a book within a book written by me and entitled ELITES, NATIONALISMS and the NATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN BRITISH CEYLON – in seven chapters and running to ccxxii pages.
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, devolution, economic processes, education, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, language policies, Left politics, life stories, nationalism, patriotism, plantations, politIcal discourse, power sharing, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Banyan ... with what seems to be a title ” Unhappy Families”
As the sun goes down the numbers swell on Galle Face Green, a promenade facing the Indian Ocean in downtown Colombo where families and lovers typically come to stroll and fly kites. These days it hosts a more purposeful crowd. Families are there, but so are farmers, students and their professors, Buddhist monks, Catholic nuns, Muslims and members of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority. A makeshift settlement has sprung up. There are teach-ins at the “People’s University” and slapstick plays for children. The capital’s classiest choir has even led a rousing rendition of “Do you hear the people sing?”. This is Gota Go Gama: “Gota Go Village”. “Gota” is short for Gotabaya. The whole carnival takes aim at the president, the 72-year-old Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and his family: Go, Gota, just go.
Filed under accountability, democratic measures, disparagement, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, social justice, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, trauma, vengeance, violence of language, world events & processes
Asanga Welikala, in ConstitutionNet, 2 May 2022, where the title reads “Economic Crisis and Constitutional Reform in Sri Lanka”
In Sri Lanka, mass protests against the unaffordable cost of living have coalesced on a central demand: the resignation of the President, Prime Minister, and Finance Minister, who are brothers. Against this background, three proposals for constitutional reform have surfaced – from the Opposition, a breakaway group of MPs, and the government respectively. The Opposition’s Bill would, among other important features, abolish presidentialism and return Sri Lanka to a parliamentary form of government, while reinforcing constitutional democracy through the separation of powers and strong checks and balances. From a design and democratisation point of view, it is the only credible constitutional reform proposal on the table, but its passage is far from guaranteed – writes Dr. Asanga Welikala
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P. Saravanamuttu, in Financial Times, 30 April 2022, where the title is “Governance in Sri Lanka: We must not miss this opportunity”
The situation in the country is one of dynamism as well as stalemate. Dynamism on account of the determination, creativity and resilience of the Gotagogama demonstrators, the extension of their efforts to the Mainagogama demonstration outside Temple Trees to the sheer celebration of Sri Lanka’s diversity and the unity of its peoples, to the presentation of the 21st Amendment in Parliament by the SJB Opposition and their mammoth march from Kandy, culminating in Colombo on May Day as well as the Hartal; stalemate because the Rajapaksas show no sense of shame and indeed self-respect to heed the call of the people and GO.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, democratic measures, disparagement, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, taking the piss, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes
While the political activists of the first half of the twentieth century were drawn from both the national and the local elites, the political leadership (at significant island-wide levels) was largely composed of individuals who could be ranked among the national elite. As indicated earlier, the national elite was a small segment of the Ceylonese population. Its levels of wealth, power and status, its lifestyle, and its value-system marked it off from the rest of the population.
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, Buddhism, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, democratic measures, devolution, disparagement, economic processes, education, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian General Elections, Indian traditions, island economy, land policies, language policies, Left politics, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, nationalism, parliamentary elections, patriotism, plantations, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, transport and communications, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes
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Samanthi Gunawardana & Nedha De Silva, at https://lens.monash.edu/@celebrating-influential-women/2021/03/08/1382925/listening-to-women-in-grassroots-leadership-in-a-covid-19-world …………. “It is a virus, we can get it anywhere, [but] we have a responsibility, and if we let go of workers now when they need us the most, what is the point?” – Chandra Devanarayana, Revolutionary Existence for Human Development, Sri Lanka
Long before COVID-19 hit Sri Lanka’s shores, grassroots women’s organisations fought poverty pay, long hours, and unsafe working conditions in the country’s garment manufacturing districts.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, democratic measures, discrimination, economic processes, female empowerment, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, performance, politIcal discourse, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, working class conditions, world events & processes
Shamindra Ferdinando
Member of House of Lords, Michael Naseby, has assured [us] that he will try very hard to convince the UK to make public the sections of the Colombo British High Commission dispatches censored by London, pertaining to the last phase of the Vanni offensive. Lord Naseby gave this assurance at the launch of his memoirs, ‘Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained’ at the BMICH on Tuesday (29).
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thuppahi
