Category Archives: social justice

July 12, 2022 · 7:47 pm

The ARAGALAYA Proclaims in Sri Lanka: A Six-Point Set of Demands

With thanks to my Aloysian compatriot KK De Silva

  1. Gotabaya Rajapaksa should resign from the post of Executive President forthwith.
  2. Government including Ranil Wickremasinghe, Rajapaksa regime should resign forthwith. ( This includes all Cabinet, Non cabinet, Deputy, Project Ministers, Ministry Secretaries, Directors, Advisors, State & Corporation Chairmen, Ambassadors).
  3. With the removal of the Gota-Ranil government, an interim administration should be set up which accords with the economic, social & political objectives & aspirations of the Peoples Struggle (Aragalaya). A Peoples Council  in which there is legal binding for representatives of the Peoples Struggle to  intervene/create an impact, should be established.

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July 10, 2022 · 2:46 pm

Vital Requirements for Sri Lanka Today

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, in IDN, July 2022, where the title reads “Sri Lanka Needs a Balanced Economic and Foreign Policy”

A shortage of exorbitantly privileged American Dollars, the global reserve fiat currency, which is not backed by gold, silver, oil or drugs, is the purported reason for Sri Lanka’s compounding crisis and the international media narrative of ‘famine’ in the country.

The upturned vehicle could be siaid to highlight the situaiton of Sri Lanka today ,,,, and yesterday … PIX ‘stolen’ from Al Jazeera  Continue reading →

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June 28, 2022 · 12:49 am

Sri Lankan Crisis: A Call for Debt Cancellation

STATEMENT ON THE CRISIS IN SRI LANKA. Southern Voices to be Heeded: A Call for Debt Justice, Debt Jubilee and Debt Cancellation  

The Coalition for Economic Democracy in Sri Lanka (CEDSL) is a group of concerned academics, activists, agricultural, fisheries and industrial workers, students, business persons, trade unionists, and professionals based ‘in country’ and overseas, including the diaspora, who uphold the values of economic rights and justice in public policy making.

 

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May 29, 2022 · 8:18 pm

The Murugappans of Lanka and Biloela …. And Gross Australian Generalizations about Sri Lankan Situations

Nick Gibbs, in 7 News, 24 May 2022, where the title runs thus “Biloela ready to Welcome Home the Murugappans”

Supporters of the Tamil family held in immigration detention believe their plight changed votes in Qld as the town of Biloela prepares to welcome them home.

 

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May 23, 2022 · 2:26 pm

The Political Travails of the Indian Tamils in the State Council Era 1931-48

Uditha Devapriya, in  The Island, 21 May 2022,  where the title runs thus “DS Senanayake and the Indian Tamil Question”

In his recent work on D. S. Senanayake, K. M. de Silva explores certain controversial aspects of Ceylon’s lurch into independent statehood. Among these is the issue of the fate of the country’s Indian Tamils. Brought to the island from South India amidst conditions of famine and mass starvation in the early part of the 19th century, Indian Tamil workers replaced Sinhalese and resident Tamil labour in the island. Governed by a semifeudal set-up that shut them out from the world outside, Indian Tamil labour grew up in a world of their own. It was their tragic fate that while the colonial government feigned little interest in their welfare, their lives lay in the hands of that government.

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May 16, 2022 · 7:13 pm

Sri Lanka as Paradox: A Schizoid Republic?

Lakshman Gunasekara, in Daily FT, 14 May 2022, where the title reads:  “Paradoxes of a schizoid Republic”     

Attackers’ roared obscenities, screams of victims, the thunk of metal poles on defenceless humans and, the crack of smashed protester shelters, all combined to almost drown out the Bhikkus’ serene chanting of Pirith emanating from loudspeakers within ‘Temple Trees’, the official residence of the Prime Minister of our Democratic Socialist Republic.

To those being beaten up on the street right outside the official residence, the public watching from the road and later, to the millions watching TV news telecasts and webcasts around the world, this triple clash of brutality, spirituality and official propriety must have seemed absolutely bizarre, even schizoid if not psycho-pathic.

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May 15, 2022 · 8:59 pm

NY TIMES Jeers & Cheers at the Rajapaksa Downfall

 Mujib Mashal and Skandha Gunasekara, in NY Times article, 14 May 2022, where the title reads  “A Ruling Family on the Run as Sri Lanka plunges into Economic Ruin,“
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From left, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa in 2018. The family has dominated Sri Lanka for the better part of two decades. Credit: Eranga Jayawardena/Associated Press

Once empowered by triumphant ethnic nationalism after a brutal civil war, the Rajpaksa dynasty has been wht its own allies call incompetence and denial. As the guests sat down for a banquet dinner last summer at the grand colonial-era home of Sri Lanka’s president, the small talk soon turned gravely serious.

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May 6, 2022 · 8:23 pm

The Rajapaksa Family face Populist Power

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.

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April 14, 2022 · 7:24 pm

Female Leaders at the Grassroots in a COVID-19 World

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.

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March 26, 2022 · 11:28 pm

Indrajit Summarizes the Reasons for Sri Lanka’s Economic Crisis

Shamindra Ferdinando in The Island, 26 March 2022, where the tiltle reads ”Successive governments’ budgetary operations caused financial instability”

Former Governor of the Central Bank Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy says the failure on the part of successive governments to manage expenditure since the country gained Independence has caused the current economic instability.

Throughout Sri Lanka had been plagued by a toxic combination of populist politics and an entrenched entitlement culture among the people, Dr. Coomaraswamy told The Island. “Time and again, the electoral calendar has undermined fiscal discipline,” Dr. Coomaraswamy, who had served as the Governor (July 2016 to Dec. 2019) said.

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