Category Archives: Left politics

October 20, 2024 · 11:36 am

Vale Kumar David — Scholar, Critic and Activist

Rajan Philips, in Colombo Telegraph, 19 October 2024, where the title reads thus = ”Kumar David: An Accomplished Academic & A Broadminded Marxist”  … with highlights imposed by the Editor, Thuppahi

Professor Kumar David (1941-2024)

One by one the lights go out. In a span of seven months, Sri Lanka’s Engineering fraternity and the country’s progressive political fraternity have lost three of their kinds, one after another. Chris Rodrigo was the first to go in March, then it was Bahu in July, and now it is Kumar David, the oldest of the three. Professor Kumar David passed away in Los Angeles, on Monday, October 14. He was 83 years old.

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October 14, 2024 · 7:38 pm

Justice: Another Opportunity Lost

A DailyFT item, 14 October 2024, entitled “Another Lost Opportunity”

The new administration of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake lost yet another opportunity in the international stage to rectify past wrongs and charter a new course. This time at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), keeping with the policies of the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe administrations, the Government rejected international efforts to deliver justice for the tens of thousands of victims of State atrocities. 

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October 10, 2024 · 8:12 pm

About Bart Klem in Political Science

  About Bart Klem = My research is focused on questions of political order amidst and after civil war. I am interested in state institutions, de facto sovereignty of rebel movements and public authority. Sri Lanka has been my main country specialization, but I also work on Northern Cyprus and I have done some work on Indonesia (mainly Kalimantan). More details may also be found on my personal website.

Before joining Gothenburg University in 2020, I was lecturer at the University of Melbourne and the University of Zurich.

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October 6, 2024 · 2:35 pm

Agriculture in the Economic Development of Sri Lanka Conference held at Gannoruwa in August 1974 — PROGRAMME Circulated Then

AGRICULTURE IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF SRI LANKA’ … conference organised by the Ceylon Studies Seminar ……16th – 19th August, 1974 …… at the In Service Training Centre, Gannoruwa

** The times of the mid-morning and afternoon tea-breaks will be announced each day.

** The names of the chairman and the discussant for each session will be indicated in a list which will be circulated later.

** The two papers marked with an asterisk may not be available for discussion.

A symbolic natural phenomenon from the Peradeniya University campus …. anticipaing potential prospects from the intellectual flowerings generated within its portals

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October 5, 2024 · 8:58 pm

Addressing the Place of Agriculture & the Mahaweli in Lanka’s Economic Future–In August 1974

Michael Roberts

The three-day conference on 16-19 August 1974 devoted to the topic of AGRICULTURE  IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF SRI LANKA held at the excellent conference facility at the Department of Agriculture at Gannoruwa – within easy distance from the Peradeniya University campus – was an instance of the capacities and vitality of the Ceylon Studies Seminar at the Peradeniya University. The CSS had been launched in 1968 and its story has been documented elsewhere with an emphasis on the roles of Prof Gananath Obeyesekere, myself, Vijaya Samaraweera, SWR de Samarasinghe, CR de Silva, typists Mrs Hettiaratchchi & Kumaraswamy and cyclostyle-operator Sathiah (see …………………………………. https://thuppahis.com/2018/10/02/nationalist-studies-and-the-ceylon-studies-seminar-at-peradeniya-1968-1970s/).

Piyasiri

CR …. and Sathiah

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October 3, 2024 · 12:56 am

Nationalist Studies and the Ceylon Studies Seminar at Peradeniya, 1968-1970s

Michael Roberts …. repeating an old TPS item [with highlighting added] because of the implications of the recent TPS item  by Bedgar Perera re Prof Rex Clements.

The years 1966 to 1975 were heady days in Ceylon. Especially so for some of us in Peradeniya Univeristy where the CEYLON STUDIES SEMINAR was launched in November 1968 by a few members of the Arts Faculty assisted by the facilities provided by Professor Gananath Obeyesekera at the Sociology Department – located then on Lower Hantane Road away from the centre of teaching. Not least among these facilities was the service provided by the Sociology Department peon Sathiah[1] who cyclostyled the written seminar papers beforehand for circulation so that those who were keen could read any presentation beforehand if they so wished – a procedure that also maximized discussion time. This background service was seconded by the typing services of Mrs Hettiarachchi in the History Department and Mr Kumaraswamy in the Sociology Department.

   Sathiah — an essential servicing hand …

  & Bishop Lakshman Wickremasinghe, who perceived the depth of the festering ethnic split early on

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October 2, 2024 · 11:10 am

President Anura’s Unfulfilled Files …. In Sri Lanka

Darshani Ratnawalli

In the USA, public prosecutors are elected.

To get elected public prosecutors must achieve convictions, the more convictions the better, the more sensational the convictions, the better.

If a public prosecutor only files cases, only talks about cases and fails to make any of it stick, i.e achieve convictions, he starts being seen as a failed prosecutor by the people.

He won’t be elected again.

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September 26, 2024 · 7:53 pm

Presidential Election Outcome in Sri Lanka: Reactions From Individual Lankan Friends

A: From An Ex-Army Officer in USA, 26 Sept 2024

Quite an achievement for AKD! In the 2019 presidential election, the JVP vote plus ‘also ran’ others was less than 6%. SEE ……………………………………………… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Sri_Lankan_presidential_election

I think it is a good result for the nation. The people were sick and tired of the corrupt and inept political elites and the crony capitalists. The portly ‘monkeys’ that occupied the palaces and travelled around in gilded coaches will be kicked out!

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September 26, 2024 · 3:44 pm

The Personnel Behind THE CEYLON JOURNAL

Thuppahi is pleased to present a photo of the key personnel located in Sri Lanka who were involved in launching the new cutting/edge academic venture known as THE CEYLON JOURNAL this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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September 20, 2024 · 1:52 am

BBC Weighs Sri Lanka’s Presidential Options

Samira Hussain, for the BBC, 15 September 2024, where the title runs thus: “Still reeling from crisis, Sri Lanka holds pivotal election”

A rally for Ranil Wickremesinghe in the coastal town of Beruwala – he’s the man to beat but lacks his own big political base

“I thought I’d spend my whole life here, fighting a corrupt government – but the younger generation did something.” Samadhi Paramitha Brahmananayake is looking at the field where she spent months camped out with thousands of other demonstrators in Sri Lanka’s capital in 2022.

She can’t quite believe that luscious green grass has replaced the hundreds of protester tents that filled the field opposite the presidential secretariat. “I feel we’re now more energetic, more powerful,” says Ms Brahmananayake, a 33-year-old banker based in Colombo.

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