Jean Arasanayagam: marking Prof. Halpe’s birth anniversary which fell on the 18th of November 2018
Recalling our youthful days as students at the University of Peradeniya, sharing our interests in drama and theatre, music, painting and literature.
Category Archives: sri lankan society
Utter Constitutional darkness in Sri Lanka. A Sunday Times editorial falls prey
Darshanie Ratnawalli
+++ This article is in the line of interpretation within difficult terrain presented by Gerald Peiris in Thuppahi yesterday as well as Peiris’s earlier intervention on this front elsewhere. Early signs suggest that both Peiris and Ratnawalli may be censored by the Editors of the principal newspapers, but hopefully Colombo Telegraph will be more open to her submission. For the readers to get some sense of the conflicting interpretations, I append a short list on both sides of the fence. A long list will demand a journey into the year 2019. Text highlighting is by the web editor.
The editorial of Sunday Times, arguably the most prestigious Sunday newspaper in Sri Lanka, stated on 11/11/2018 that “Article 33 (2) (c) which gives blanket powers to the President to dissolve Parliament at his wish” is a provision that “comes from the original 1978 Executive Presidency Constitution.” This is an error when you consider that in our present Constitution, every other provision under 33(2) – 33(2)(A), 33(2)(B), 33(2)(D), 33(2)(E), 33 (2)(F), 33(2)(G), and 33(2)(H) comes from the JR Constitution, while 33(2)(C) is the only provision that DOES NOT.
Such an error in such a reputed source shows in what darkness the public is fighting the battle to find the true Constitution of Sri Lanka. To give the proper context, the relevant paragraphs in the ST editorial must be quoted in full.
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, authoritarian regimes, cultural transmission, doctoring evidence, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes
Peiris Confronts Samarasinghe and Other Pundits
Gerald H Peiris
Having collaborated with Professor S. W. R. DE A. Samarasinhe (Sam) in several research projects, I have had the occasions to admire his extraordinary analytical skills and his clarity of thought. I also recollect that he was one of the earliest in the intellectual firmament of Sri Lanka who applied his expertise in ‘Banking and Public Finance’ to expose procedural irregularities in the infamous issue of ‘Central Bank Bonds’ early in the tenure of the Yahapalana regime, disregarding his own leanings vis-à-vis the party configuration of Sri Lanka. However, I have to say that his article titled ‘Implications of the Supreme Court Verdict’ (The Island of 15 November) is a rare instance of his departure from scholarly understanding and impartiality.
In the first place, what the Supreme Court (SC) issued on the 13th of November was not a ‘verdict’. As explained to me by two of Sri Lanka’s most respected lawyers about 45 years ago, an ‘Interim Injunction’ is no more than a postponement of a verdict. Despite Sam being aware of that, it is disappointing to see him in the political mob (which includes representatives and lackeys of the global powers that contributed substantially towards the processes that installed the Yahapalana government) attempting to persuade the people that the Court issued a verdict against President Sirisena’s decision announced on 26 October to reformulate the Cabinet and, on 9 November, to dissolve the parliament which was prorogued at that time. Thus, what did happen was that, due perhaps to the legal intricacies concerning the presidential decision, the SC gave itself and the lawyers on both sides of the dispute 22 days until it could sit once again to arrive at a decision. Continue reading
In Praise of Traitors: Intimacy, Betrayal, and the Sri Lankan Tamil Community
Sharika Thiranagama, Chapter in Suspicion, Intimacyy and The Ethics of State-building, ed. by S. Thirangama and Tobias Kelly, , University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
ABSTRACT: In a 2006 Canadian Sri Lankan Tamil pamphlet called Thurohi (Traitor), the author tells his diasporic audience, “many of us fled and came to this country. Why? Our life’s duty is to survive. But what is our historical duty? To be traitors” (Jeeva 2006, 3; emphasis added).1 The war between the Sri Lankan state and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) drew in Sri Lanka’s three largest ethnic groups: The majority Sinhalese, the minority Sri Lankan Tamils, and Sri Lankan Muslims; the latter, while war-affected, were not active in the conflict. The primary battlefields and areas of LTTE control were northern and eastern Sri Lanka. In May 2009 the war came to a bloody close in a stand-off with the Sri Lankan Army and the death of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and most senior leadership. This end came long after the writing of this chapter and is not its subject……. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, education, Fascism, heritage, human rights, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Rajapaksa regime, refugees, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, world events & processes
The Maithri-Mahinda Coup Stymied?
Asanga Welikala, Groundviews, 14 November 2018, with the title as follows: “The Coup de Grace on the Coup D’Etat?’
Since 26 October, virtually every gambit and calculation of the instigators of the Sri Lankan constitutional coup have failed. Initially, they relied on the element of surprise to cover up the illegality of removing the serving Prime Minister enjoying the confidence of the House. They calculated that ‘the return of the strongman’ narrative would, through a mixture of discontent, financial inducement, and fear, open the floodgates of crossovers, so that a new majority could be shown in short order. When this did not happen as quickly as they had probably hoped, they prorogued Parliament to buy themselves some time, while the financial stakes could be raised and quite possibly other tactics be deployed to induce sufficient crossovers for a parliamentary majority. Despite rumours of unprecedented sums being offered, the anticipated floodgate remained firmly shut. In one of the more intriguing episodes in Sri Lankan politics, it seems the prospect of massive financial gain was weighed against other factors by MPs, but quite what these weightier countervailing pressures were, we are yet to discover.
Populist Musings from Kusal Perera invokes a Pox on all the Parties
Kusal Perera, in Daily Mirror, 16 November 2018, where the title is “Geopolitics of resolving conflict with a redundant Constitution”
The SC decision has pushed Rajapaksa into back foot defence on a daily basis, reacting to the Wickremesinghe strategy of taking decisions in a Parliament that remains prorogued but accepted by Western interests as Constitutional.
The Supreme Court (SC) decision to issue a stay order on the Gazette notification dissolving Parliament is given a completely distorted interpretation by Yahapalana Experts, to be in line with the Western power bloc. Their accredited envoys in Colombo act firmly in legitimising the Government of their choice. On that strength, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya convened the prorogued Parliament, though constitutionally the Speaker has no such power.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, China and Chinese influences, constitutional amendments, democratic measures, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, Left politics, legal issues, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, world affairs
Amunugama’s Chameleon Faces and Phrases
Sarath De Alwis, in Daily FT, 13 November 2018, where the chosen title is “Untruth is the crisis” …. with highlighting being the hand of The Editor, Thuppahi
Political language, said George Orwell, is designed to make lies sound truthful, murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
Dr. Sarath Amunugama is the subject of this essay. In addition to his current incarnation of a politician, he is an erudite scholar, a socio anthropologist of repute. His incisive mind’ has few rivals in the parliament that stands dissolved. I last met him on 30 November 2015 when he joined Professor Gananatha Obeysekera in celebrating the life and work of Dr. Stanley Thambiah in a panel discussion at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies. Dr. Amunugama paid a touching tribute to the author who made the penetrative survey of political Buddhism published under the rhetorical title ‘Buddhism betrayed?’
Continue reading
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, cultural transmission, disparagement, governance, historical interpretation, Indian traditions, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, literary achievements, news fabrication, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes
Remembering Darrel Weinman — Surgeon and Doctor Extraordinary
Ranji Wikramanayake, in The Island, 11 November 2018 …. and also inhttps://sixtyfourbatchcolombo.com/2018/11/12/tribute-to-darrel-felix-weinman/
Darrel Weinman attended St. Peter’s College Colombo where he was a brilliant student & excelled at sport. He was the school cricket captain. A few years ago when a mutual friend, Dr.Tony Don Michael passed away, I informed him. He said, “He was my protégé”. Tony played cricket for the school, under Darrel.
He was a good student & I am reliably informed by his classmate (from 2nd year St. Peters ) Dr. Derrick Nugara who graduated with him, that he qualified with 1st class honours. I didn’t know him as a student as he was a few years senior to me, but in 1957, when he was studying for the primary FRCS, he borrowed a box of pathology slides from me. Needless to say, he passed first & won the Hallet prize. Continue reading
A Remarkable Loyalty in the Artistry of Ivor Denis
Tony Donaldson, reproduced here courtesy of CEYLANKAN … and replacing today 25th November 2018 the initial version presented in Thuppahi
Three giants of the Sri Lankan arts world have passed away this year. The visual artist Neville Weereratne died in Melbourne on 3 January 2018, aged 86 (Donaldson, 2018); the visionary filmmaker Lester James Peries died, aged 99, in Colombo on 29 April; and the singer Ivor Denis passed away at his home in Seeduwa on 18 June, aged 86.
Ivor Denis playing violin
Filed under art & allure bewitching, charitable outreach, cultural transmission, education, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian traditions, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, performance, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, teaching profession, the imaginary and the real, unusual people
Tiger Insurgents caught in the Oddusuddan Locality in June 2018
D.B.S. Jeyaraj
in Daily Mirror, 30 June 2018, where the title reads “Seizure of Tiger arsenal in North renews fears of an LTTE revival attempt”
The 21km-long Puthukkudiyiruppu-Oddusuddan road progressing through the hinterland of North-Eastern Mullaitivu District, links Puthukkudiyiruppu on the A-35 Paranthan-Mullaitivu highway and Oddusuddan on the A-34 Mankulam-Mullaitivu highway. It was along this road that a trusted deputy of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed by the deep penetration squad of the Sri Lankan armed forces on September 26, 2001. Vaithilingam Sornalingam alias “Col” Shankar, the founder-chief of the tiger air wing was killed by a claymore mine hung on a tree as he was driving his two-seater four-wheeler pick-up vehicle alone. The killing transmitted shockwaves amongst LTTE circles as it demonstrated the fact that the armed forces were capable of infiltrating the heartland of tiger-controlled territory and inflicting lethal damage.
Filed under accountability, communal relations, ethnicity, historical interpretation, insurrections, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, politIcal discourse, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, unusual people
