Category Archives: sri lankan society

April 4, 2016 · 5:11 am

Lanka’s Economic Crisis: Issues and Facts

Nimal Sanderatne, in The Sunday Times, 3 April 2016, where the title is “Who is responsible for the economic crisis?: Twofold increase in foreign debt 2010-14″

There have been plenty of accusations and counter accusations on who caused the current economic crisis. The government accuses the previous government and the previous regime accuses the new government of causing the economic crisis. This politically biased debate is not based on economic facts and figures. Statements on both sides of the political divide lack substance and cogent arguments.

 aaaa-Econ-Crisis Cartoon MR statement: In this context of confused thinking, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa made a well-crafted statement on the ides of March. He contends that the economy was strong when he left office and that it was the developments in the last 15 months of the present government that caused the crisis. Continue reading →

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April 4, 2016 · 4:52 am

Deeper Paths of Reconciliation grounded in Socio-economic Concerns are called for

Ahilan Kadirgamar and Swastika Arulingam, in the Daily News, 4 April 2016, with title “Call for real reconciliation”

As Sri Lanka moves on a new constitution and transitional justice process, it must prioritize local concerns of deepening economic inequalities over an international focus on war crimes. The heavy international focus on prosecutions for war-time human rights abuses in Sri Lanka is a reductive view, often shutting down discussion as opinions become divisive. On the one hand, calls for prosecution come with the demand to have international judges so as  to ensure a credible process that addresses the deterioration of the criminal justice system. On the other hand, prosecution is often said to betray “war heroes” and international participation to undermine sovereignty. Even as post-war communities strive to come to terms with the aftermath of war while struggling against neo-liberal development policies imposed on them, solutions proposed by international heavyweights frequently override the concerns of the affected people.  aaa-Tamil cvilians NKL Tamil civilians trudge out of NKL anvil–DNews

L 137b -aid + assembling sunday observer 26 april 2009 Scene from rear of battle front- circa May 2009 Continue reading →

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April 3, 2016 · 9:45 am

Tissa Chandrasoma’s Vignettes

Rajpal de Silva, in the Sunday Island, http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=articledetails&code_title=143108 3 April 2016, introducing a book Vignettes of the Ceylon Civil Service 1938 – 1957, prepared by Vijaya and Parakrama Chandrasoma,  and printed by Lazergraphic, Colombo., 2016.

This new handsome hard-cover publication by M. Chandrasoma’s sons, Vijaya and Parakrama, includes an Introduction and Postscript and six photographs showing Chandrasoma at various events during his career of nearly 20 years in the Ceylon Civil Service –which then comprised an elite group of individuals (usually an annual intake of 10) chosen from the cleverest of the Ceylon University’s recently qualified graduates. There was no political ‘input’ in this long bygone era – and hence the administration of the numerous and varied governmental departments whether they be Forestry, Fisheries, Agriculture, Public Works, Health or Revenue were managed by the best intellects that the island produced annually.

Manikkuwadumestri (Tissa) Chandrasoma’s original book, published in 1991, is once again reproduced in full. The original title, Vignettes, is most appropriate, considering that Chandrasoma’s book of 153 pages is sectionalized into 37 chapters.   Aaaa--VIGNETTES Continue reading →

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April 3, 2016 · 8:32 am

Rama Somasunderam’s Life, Times and Views: 1935-1990

Three chapters from Rama Somasunderam: For the Record, privately printed, n. d. …

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ONE: My Early Life and Education–School and University

I was born on the 13 June 1935. My parents were Tamils who had settled in Kandy within the Central Province of Sri Lanka. My father was educated at Victoria College in Chulpuram, within the Jaffna District of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. His father had sent him in the early part of the last century to study in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, after he had completed the Junior Cambridge Examination. Strangely he entered Ananda College which was the premiere Buddhist College in Colombo. He passed his Cambridge Senior Examination and entered the Law College and passed out as a lawyer (Proctor E.N.P.).

My father practised for a while in Colombo, and thereafter joined the Kandy Bar. He married my mother in 1934. My mother’s family had settled for years in Kandy. She had studied at Girls’ High School in Kandy, which was a Methodist Mission School. She passed her Junior Cambridge Examination, and married my father when she was 18 years of age.

I was born in the house of my maternal grandfather, which was situated at 720 Peradeniya Road, Kandy. It was a typical joint family home in the traditional Tamil sense. My mother had two younger sisters and a younger brother. I was the first to arrive in their family, and therefore given a great deal of attention by my grandmother and my two aunts. I was an only child. Continue reading →

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March 29, 2016 · 8:37 am

Shyam Selvadurai’s Literary Paths to Reconciliation

Sachitra Mahendra, in Daily News, 29 March 2016, with title “On the Other Side”

One evening in Toronto… begins Shyam Selvadurai his introduction to the second anthology of Write to Reconcile, and shares a tale he heard from Ajahn Brahm (see box story: The tale of seven monks by Ajahn Brahm). The tale had offered him inspiration on a platter while he was in the middle of editing the anthology. Selvadurai grasped the key elements of Ajahn’s tale: ‘other side’. That concept of hearing the ‘other side’ viewpoint kept him spellbound.

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March 28, 2016 · 12:07 pm

Besieged: Confronting the LTTE Assaults in mid-1990 in Batticaloa Province … an Infantry Officer’s Tale

Hiran Halangode, ….. with highlighting within the text being impositions from the Editor, Thuppahi

In dedication to the First Gemunu Watch:[1]   I dedicate this article to all those valiant officers and men of the 1st Battalion the Gemunu Watch (1GW) who served with me during my tenure of command from 01 December 1988 to 31 January 19991. They served with me loyally, with dedication and commitment in Hambantota, Moneragala, Ampara and Batticaloa districts against all odds. They strove hard, made supreme sacrifices and suffered humiliation at times to safeguard Sri Lanka as a unitary state. This essay is written without fear or favour, with malice to none and magnanimity to all.

ipkf7 Pic from lefantasist.blogspot.com

With the departure of the IPKF in end March 1990 the LTTE gradually took control of the North-East of Sri Lanka. They positioned their cadres in vital areas that enabled them to exert pressure on the Police who maintained law and order and the Army who were very thinly deployed in the Northeast. In the Eastern province one Infantry Battalion was deployed in each of the districts of Ampara, Batticaloa and Trincomalee.

Late Gen DLK with self at Kallady BCO 1990 - pic 2General Denzil Kobbekaduwa & Hiran Halangode at Kallady  in 1990

In Batticaloa five Army detachments were established. They were at Wellawadi, Kiran, Kalawanchikudy, Kalmunai and Kallady. Out of these detachments, Kalmunai and Kalawanchikudy detachments belonged to 6th Bn Sri Lanka Light Infantry (6 SLLI) which were just raised in late May 1990. The Infantry Battalions were handicapped, as they had to shed one Rifle Coy and composite platoons to raise another Infantry Battalion in late May 1990. The troops had to re-orientate themselves from a low intensity environment in the South to a high intensity environment in the North and East. However 1 GW had already prepared themselves during their tenure of 10 months at Ampara where they saw the LTTE annihilate the TNA with the withdrawal of the IPKF. They had saved some of the TNA (viz., the Tamil National Army – ex-members of EPRLF/ENDLF) cadres who fled the LTTE attacks into Ampara. They were armed by the IPKF who wanted them to be their proxy, although not included in the infamous Indo Lanka peace agreement. This is for the attention of the numerous Indian military experts and the more radical TNA politicians who speak about genocide. Continue reading →

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March 24, 2016 · 1:46 pm

Muttukrishna Sarvananthan: Recent Essays from a Man from Point Pedro, 2011-15

  sarvi  Muttukrishna Sarvananthan

Elusive Economic Peace Dividend: all that glitters is not gold

Abstract: This research paper compares and contrasts the post-civil war economic development in the conflict-affected Eastern and Northern Provinces and the Southern and Western Provinces in Sri Lanka. In spite of high economic growth in the conflict-affected provinces, employment generation has been very low; unemployment rates and poverty are very high. Moreover, the ruling party (at the time of the first draft of this paper in June 2014) has lost significant share of its vote received in the recent provincial elections (2012–2014) compared to its share of votes at the provincial elections in the immediate aftermath of the civil war (2008–2010) indicating that the economic growth at national and provincial levels has not filtered down to the households. Continue reading →

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March 21, 2016 · 11:04 am

The Yahapalanaya Government in Crisis … and the War Crimes Dilemma — Rajan Philips

I. Rajan Philips: “Neither whys nor wherefores, let alone solutions, as government lurches from crisis to crisis,” Sunday Island, 20 March 2016,

 TROIKATo paraphrase the poet (Coleridge), it is crisis, crisis everywhere, but no robust government response anywhere. The economy is in deep trouble and no one is trying to exaggerate the challenges or the consequences of failure. The power system has failed and the consequences have been felt everywhere and more than once or twice. Whether the causes of these crises are current or inherited is immaterial. The people are reasonable enough not to expect instant solutions, but they can see through bluff, bluster and incompetence on the part of any government, old or new, corrupt or conning. The current economic troubles are mostly inherited from the previous government. And the electrical troubles go back even farther. But the political and administrative troubles are mostly manufactured by the present government. The deficit between good governance promises and actual practices is worse than the budget deficit. The confusion in government ranks is confusing everyone else. There is an Executive President and an Executive Prime Minister. Together they made a cabinet that broke the rule for size that they stipulated in the much vaunted 18th Amendment. The size of the cabinet doesn’t matter when all it has are Jokers and no Aces. The Prime Minister has virtually become the Man for all Ministries in the cabinet and the government. Every file goes to him for decision and statement as the government lurches from one crisis file to another. 

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March 21, 2016 · 9:49 am

Jayasuriyagama & Atapattugama: Villages born Anew after the Groundswell of the Tsunami in 2004

Reminders for us fortunate souls from the camera of an intrepid British bike rider … http://www.elakiri.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1687848

bIKE MAN C 33  …..“As it happened, later on I saw a sign pointing to ‘Sanath Jayasuriyagama’ (‘gama’ means ‘village’). It’s one of two villages set up by cricketers (the other being Marvan Atapattu) that provided homes for 100 families whose houses were destroyed in the 2004 tsunami. Having a bike meant I could detour to visit the village (pic), whose streets are all named after cricketers.” Continue reading →

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March 21, 2016 · 7:52 am

A British Bike-Man’s Bike Ride in Sri Lanka

A Beautiful tale … with British humour … and stunning pictures …. disguising the hard yards 

A MUST SEE: http://www.elakiri.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1687848

Robs’ Sri Lanka Trip BIKE MAN 11 Rob at Dondra head … southernmost point BIKE MAN 22 In the temple courtyard, a school lesson was taking place (pic). I’m always intrigued by the fact that the further away you get from England, the more spotlessly white the children’s uniforms.

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