Category Archives: devolution

July 10, 2020 · 2:07 pm

Achtung! Whiffs of Tiger Militarism and Tamil Federalism in Recent Talk and Action

ONE: Camelia Nathaniel, in Daily News, 9 July 2020, which carries this title “Resurrection of LTTE’s Agenda of Violence”

The LTTE network overseas has been planning a series of attacks in Sri Lanka since the war ended in May 2009. The latest attempt to disrupt peace and stability in Sri Lanka was on July 4, 2020. A former member of the Tamil Tigers Thangarajah Thevathashan was preparing to conduct a bombing to mark the Black Tigers Day. The foreign handlers knew Thangarajah Thevathashan by his LTTE name Gangai Athman alias Kavinjan. He was serving in the LTTE Intelligence wing, notorious for the assassinations of several leaders including the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

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June 12, 2020 · 2:35 pm

Challenging Michael Roberts … with Straight Left and Right Hook

Gerald Peiris ... in the spirit of vigorous debate which we used to pursue in the Arts Faculty and the Ceylon Studies Seminar at Peradeniya University in the late 1960s and the 1970s, Gerry Peiris has responded with two sharply critical notes of some significance to my critical review of Sri Lankan society and politics, an essay that is directed by an optimistic eye …. Ha! Ha! … towards a major overhaul.

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June 6, 2020 · 2:39 pm

Professor KM de Silva’s Publications

Born in 1931 — on 31st December no less — Kingsley Muthumuni de Silva, is still batting … with a pen. This compilation has been assembled by Iranga de Silva of ICES Kandy…. and is arranged in reverse chronological sequence.

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May 5, 2020 · 4:44 am

John Richardson’s Case Study of Protracted Conflict in 2005

David Sallach, reviewing John Richardson: Paradise Poisoned: Learning about Conflict, Terrorism and Development from Sri Lanka’s Civil Wars. Kandy: International Center for Ethnic Studies, 2005. xvi + 764 pp. $25.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-955-580-094-5…. way back in 2007 …. https://networks.h-net.org/node/3180/reviews/6309/sallach-richardson-paradise-poisoned-learning-about-conflict-terrorism

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April 20, 2020 · 8:09 am

Champion’s Photographic Lens on Sri Lanka’s Travails, 1988-2008

Saroj Pathirana, in bbc.com, where the title reads “History ‘repeats’ through lens” … an EVENT in July 2008 in London  = https://www.bbc.com/sinhala/highlights/story/2008/07/080716_champion_photos.shtml

While traveling around Sri Lanka for over 22 years I always expected someday the situation would change for the better”, says the veteran British photographer Stephen Champion. However, after nearly two decades since he first set his foot on the island the country is still battling, he says. “We are still looking at the very similar scenario. History seems to be repeating itself,” Mr. Champion told BBC Sandeshaya at the launch of his latest book on Sri Lanka.

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January 19, 2020 · 6:28 am

Sampanthan’s Devious Reasoning and Twisted Historical Review

Rajeewa Jayweera, in Island, 18 January 2020, where the title runs “President’s policy statement and Sampanthan’s amnesia” … with underlining emphasis being i positions by The Editor, Thuppahi

During the two-day adjournment debate on the policy statement delivered by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R Sampanthan’s outburst had more holes than a target sheet in a firing range (and Swiss Ambassador Hanspeter Mock’s charge of the abduction, molestation, and interrogation by unknown persons of embassy minor employee Garnier Banister Francis aka Sriyalatha Perera).

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November 25, 2019 · 3:07 pm

The Fundamental Oppositions: Lakshman Gunasekara challenges Jayaweera & Roberts

Email Memo from Lakshman F. B. Gunasekara, 5 November 2019 directed at 

Mike, …. You quote with approval one ‘Rajeewa’ as saying: “The final result proved without ambiguity, the disconnect between the small group of elitist city dwellers and the rural masses.” ………………………..And then you say:-  … “leads me to present a thesis** that this political tussle was an instance of the provinces ranged against metropolitan Colombo – that is, the rural vs the city (with a proviso excluding the rural Tamils and rural Muslims of east and north-west from this simplification).”

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November 25, 2019 · 3:37 am

Gotabaya’s Team overcomes the Odds

Rajeewa Jayaweera, in Island, 23 November 2019, with this title “GotabayaR prevails against all odds”

In the 2015 Presidential Elections in January 2015, Maithripala Sirisena defeated President Mahinda Rajapaksa by a majority of just under a half a million votes. It was in no small measure due to ethnic Tamil and Muslim communities voting for him in large numbers. 2019 was worse than in 2015. Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR) received only 8% of the Northern vote, 24% of the Eastern ballot, and 18% of the total N&E vote. Mahinda Rajapaksa, in 2015, received 20% of the Northern vote, 26% of the Eastern ballot, and 24% from the N&E vote.

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October 23, 2019 · 8:55 am

Wigneswaran’s Political Manifesto dissected in Devastating Fashion

Chandre Dharmawardana, in Island, 29 October 2019, where the title is “The ITAK’s 13-Point Letter””

According to news reports in The Island of 18 Oct. 2019), the TNA has sent a 13-point to the presidential candidates, even though the prospective President has been shackled by the 19A crafted by the Jayampathy-Sumanthiran cabal. It should not be forgotten that parties constituting the TNA backed the LTTE in its heyday and were the political facades of Prabhakaran’s terror campaign, even though their very own colleagues like Amirthalingam and Yogeswaran had been murdered in cold blood by Prabhakaran. Those acts have never been condemned by the TNA.

see https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_Tamil_Eelam

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October 13, 2019 · 8:07 am

The TNA’s Conundrum Today

CA Chandraprema in Sunday Observer 13/10/19

The TNA is facing an existential conundrum at this election. In 2015, they went all out to make the common candidate win and gave all kinds of unrealistic pledges to the Tamil people of the north and east as to what can be expected by making Maithripala Sirisena President. But after he was elected, the Tamil people got nothing of what was promised and instead lost even what they had in the form of all the work that the Rajapaksa government had done or were in the process of doing in the north and east.  Understandably, the people of the area are holding the TNA responsible and between the parliamentary election of 2015 and the local government elections of 2018, the TNA’s votes in the Jaffna and Batticaloia districts went down drastically.

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