Newly appointed Foreign Secretary Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage spells out the foreign policy of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). He spells out how the Government 
will reconcile competing interests of China and India, and how Sri Lanka can have healthy ties with other countries including Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, modernity & modernization, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, world events & processes
Admiral Ravindra C Wijegunaratne,* in Island, 5 September 2020, where the title runs “From the tallest clock tower to smallest sand clock in Sri Lanka”
Galle is a fascinating place to work in. I was the Commander Southern Naval Area (Comsouth) from 3rd August 2008 to 10th August 2009. For me nothing was more refreshing than the early morning beach run on the world famous Unawatuna beach as well as the one-kilometer swim (before tourists invaded the beach).
Filed under accountability, charitable outreach, cricket for amity, economic processes, education, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, self-reflexivity, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, tourism, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Michael Roberts
After the British imperial power consolidated its conquest of the island of Ceylon in 1815 and 1817/18, they began to ‘stitch the island together by commencing a road building programme; while the Colebrooke Cameron Commission which visited the island in the 1820s recommended the creation of five “Provinces.”
Gerald Peiris
The concept of the ‘Traditional Tamil Homeland’ as promulgated by its exponents is based on the notion that, from the distant past, the island of Sri Lanka comprised the territories of two distinct nationalities that were arbitrarily unified in the formation of British Ceylon in the early 19th century. My survey, which draws from several authoritative writings, some of which have been authored by reputed Tamil scholars, shows that such a notion does not conform to known facts and unbiased interpretations of the country’s history.
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, conspiracies, cultural transmission, devolution, doctoring evidence, economic processes, Eelam, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, irrigation, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, language policies, legal issues, literary achievements, nationalism, politIcal discourse, population, power politics, power sharing, prabhakaran, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, travelogue, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes
Rienzie Wijetilleke and Kusum Wijetilleke, in Island, 4 September 2020,with this title “False perspectives of Wigneswaran”
Archbishop Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith’s recent comments regarding racial and religious politics were most timely. In a climate where religious leaders seek to become political leaders, to hear the Archbishop state so unequivocally that religion and language should not be the basis for a political party is at least mildly reassuring. It seems that the Archbishop was irked by recent comments made in Parliament by MP C. V. Wigneswaran regarding the primary language of Sri Lanka’s indigenous peoples. Cardinal Malcom is certainly not alone, although when he states that this division began in the 1950s, he is only half right. Certainly, the introduction of the singular language policy of 1956 created a significant fissure in the country, yet the beginnings of the debate around language and ethnicity and its political divisions had taken root long before this.
Filed under accountability, ancient civilisations, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, disparagement, education, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war
Sophia Sleigh & April Roach in Evening Standrard 10 August 2020, where the title is RAF plane patrols English Channel after nearly 700 migrants cross”
An RAF plane was drafted in to carry out surveillance missions over the Channel today as the Government steps up efforts to prevent migrants crossing into the UK from France. The A400M Atlas flew from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire to provide surveillance for the Border Force and Coastguard who can intercept boats. The Ministry of Defence said the aircraft, which flew from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, is an “initial offer of assistance” to the Home Office.
A group of people thought to be migrants crossing The Channel in a small boat headed in the direction of Dover, Kent (PA)Filed under accountability, asylum-seekers, communal relations, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, historical interpretation, human rights, immigration, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes
Javid Yusuf, in Island, August 2020, and also PRESSREADER where the title is “Resolving the Ethnic Conflict- making a difficult task that much more difficult”
One of the most complex problems faced by the country after independence has been the “ethnic conflict” that resulted in a civil war that consumed the country for over three decades. Although the conflict was not between two ethnicities (the Sinhalese and Tamils) but in reality between the State and the Tamil community, the label “ethnic conflict” has become the common parlance used to describe the events around this long drawn out conflict. Basically it has been an attempt by the Tamil politicians to persuade successive Governments to restructure the State so as to address Tamil concerns.
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, constitutional amendments, democratic measures, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, insurrections, language policies, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, parliamentary elections, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, prabhakaran, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, world events & processes
Michael Roberts
Asanga Welikala edited an important book entitled The Republic at Forty in 2012 in which I participated (CPA, 2012). Both Welikala and Roshan de Silva-Wijeyeratne have formidable curriculum-vitae behind them. Their recent intervention in criticism of the Rajapaksa state today[1] also happens to rely heavily on SJ Tambiah’s work on the mandala state,[2] a topic which also informed my concept of the “Asokan Persona,” which is developed within four chapters in my book Exploring Confrontation (1994).
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian traditions, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, landscape wondrous, life stories, parliamentary elections, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, world events & processes
I sent the Article by Asanga Welikala and de Silva-Wijeyeratne to 24 personnel** in various parts of the world on the 29/30th August inviting Comments ….. and these THREE comments from Hugh Karunanayake, Gerald Peiris and CR de Silva are the first ‘burst’ ….. Michael Roberts
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, constitutional amendments, democratic measures, disparagement, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, parliamentary elections, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Asanga Welikala and Roshan de Silva-Wijeyeratne, in Groundviews, 25 August 2020, with this title “The Past and the Present in the (Re)Constitution of the State” …
The election of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in November 2019 marked the beginning of a new era of a Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist ascendancy in Sri Lanka. The Covid-19 pandemic provided an early opportunity for the government to establish an authoritarian governing style, helped by Parliament standing dissolved, and the Supreme Court’s refusal to subject the government to the constitution. In the delayed parliamentary election earlier in August, the government and its allies sought and obtained a two-thirds majority mandate.
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, constitutional amendments, cultural transmission, democratic measures, devolution, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, education, electoral structures, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, unusual people, vengeance, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
thuppahi
