Category Archives: sri lankan society

August 1, 2014 · 11:01 pm

Buddhist Belief & Practice in the Sri Lanka Army

Daniel Kent, of University of Virginia via http://thecarthaginiansolution.wordpress.com/war/buddhist-belief-practice-in-the-sri-lanka-army/

To refrain from taking any life is Buddhism defined. How then do Buddhist soldiers go to war in the full knowledge that they are required to perform a deed which ensures negative karma in this life and the next? Daniel Kent, Assistant Professor in religious studies at the University of Virginia presents some startling insights resulting from research and discussion with soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army.

Download his doctoral dissertation,  [Shelter For You, Nirvana For Our Sons: Buddhist Belief and Practice in the Sri Lankan Army (2008) [PDF file]. Continue reading →

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August 1, 2014 · 10:33 pm

The LTTE and the Lost Quest for Tamil Separatism

Neil De Votta, in Asian Survey Vol. LXIX, No. 6, Nov-Dec. 2009 …. access via University of California Press and http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/as.2009.49.6.1021

DE VOTTAAbstract: The ethnocentric policies successive Sri Lankan governments pursued against
the minority Tamils pushed them to try to secede, but the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE) immanent contradictions—the quest for state-building and independence juxtaposed with fascistic rule and terrorist practices—undermined the separatist movement and irreparably weakened the Tamil community. The Sri Lankan government’s extra-constitutional counter terrorism  strategies under Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa helped defeat the LTTE,
but the attendant militarism, culture of impunity especially among the defense forces, and political machinations bode further ill for the island’s democratic and polyethnic future.
Keywords: Sri Lanka, LTTE, eelam, terrorism, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalism Continue reading →

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July 30, 2014 · 6:59 pm

Reviewing the SOOKA Report and NGO Manoeuvres

The Sooka Report: How NGOs serve government …… by CSI

Many of these NGOs espouse the universalist language of human rights, but actually use it to defend highly particularist causes: the rights of particular national groups or minorities or classes of persons.”– Michael Ignatieff, I. Human Rights as Politics. II. Human Rights as Idolatry, The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Princeton University, 4-7 April 2000, p.291[1]

Yasmin sooka

The Political Context:  Ever since the end of the civil war brought peace to Sri Lanka, there has been a concerted attempt in the Western media to criticise and undermine the victory Sri Lankan won against the LTTE terrorists (the “Tamil Tigers”) in 2009.

The most notable examples of this have been the series of highly misleading news reports issued by Channel 4 news on “Sri Lanka’s killing fields” which allege widespread and systematic killing of civilians in the final months of the conflict. Continue reading →

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July 25, 2014 · 2:25 pm

Sudharshan Seneviratne talks to the people of The HINDU

Meera Srinivasan, in The Hindu, July 2014

SS Pic by Meera Srinivasan

When Sri Lankan archaeologist Sudharshan Seneviratne drove down to Chanakyapuri on a hot day recently, memories of his Delhi days came back gushing. From being a student in the city in the 1970s to returning now as the highest representative of his country, life has come a full circle, says Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India who, as a student, spent a decade in India, studying in New Delhi and later researching early Buddhism in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

On 13th Amendment: In an interview to The Hindu , days ahead of his big move, Mr. Seneviratne says issues such as the implementation of the 13th Amendment — India has been pushing Sri Lanka to devolve more powers to its provinces as per this Amendment — the fishermen’s conflict or [the claim to] Katchatheevu could be resolved by coming together and working without “being parochial about it”. Continue reading →

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July 25, 2014 · 12:23 pm

Gunesekera’s NOONTIDE TOLL: Tip-toeing through Sri Lanka

Paul Binding, reviewing Noontide Toll, by Romesh Gunesekera, Granta, pp.256, £12.99, ISBN: 9781620970201

NOONTIDE TOLL‘The first night I stayed in Kilinochchi, I was a little apprehensive,’ admits the usually cool-headed Vasantha, van-driver and narrator of all the stories in Noontide Toll. Kilinochchi was the operational centre of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) until the Sri Lankan army’s entry in January 2009. Now the town offers amenities like the Spice Garden Inn, with glass-walled cafeteria and reception desk overflowing with coconut flowers and bougainvillea. Yet its assistant manager, Miss Saraswati, belies such luxurious blandness. A rat suddenly appears in the café; immediately she hurls a bottle, breaking the creature’s skull without destroying the implement. ‘I stared at Miss Saraswati. “You learn to do that at Jaffna hotel school?” ’ Next morning Vasantha notices ‘the trigger finger of her right hand was callused and discoloured at the edge’.

Miss Saraswati calls the van-man a ‘peacemaker’, and often he feels himself ‘a kind of doctor’. Those long journeys on which he takes passengers ‘looking for something lost and irretrievable’ are surely a form of ‘healing’. He has certainly learned to keep his counsel, so many revelations does he hear of grave splits in identity. Continue reading →

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July 24, 2014 · 10:01 pm

Heartening Developments … and a young heart blooms

Kumudini Hettiarachchi reporting from Jaffna in The Sunday Times, July 2014

Knowing since 2009 that she had a hole in the heart, she and her paternal grandmother, Nakapillai Gnanasoundarie, from Alankerni in Kinniya, Trincomalee, were compelled to do nothing due to poverty. They just could not afford the heart operation at a cost of about Rs. 500,000 in Colombo, while accessing a government hospital in the capital also brought with it heavy burdens on this ‘single’ grandmother who was eking out a living as a labourer.

HEART OP -SUNDAY TIMESLast Sunday (July 6), however, her life changed in a way they had never imagined. Archana became the flag-bearer in a quest to introduce open-heart surgery in Jaffna. The initiation of open-heart surgery using the heart-lung machine for people living in the northern, north-central and eastern areas has been the quest of eminent Heart Surgeon Dr. Ravi Perumalpillai. Continue reading →

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July 24, 2014 · 3:45 pm

Rally for UNITY at Colombo — 27 July 2014

“Rally for Unity”, as a co-host, invites you to be a part of the Solidarity Day Rally organized by Socialist Youth Union and hosted by the broader citizen movements including FUTA, Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Artists’ Collective, “Saamuhika Prayathnaya”, Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, All Ceylon Muslim League Youth Federation, Young Christian Journalists Association, Sri Lanka Tamil Media Forum, Muslim Media Forum, Professional Journalists Association and other Journalist collectives, Professional Associations, Trade Unions, Youth networks and many concerned citizens.
The solidarity walk will start in Maligawatte and expected to reach Vihara Maha Devi Park by 4pm followed by a Rally on Unity and Diversity. The rally will be followed by a Festival atmosphere with performances by various ethnic representations as well as performance artists including Sunil Perera from Gypsies, Ishak Mohideen Beg and Nalin Perera from 6.30pm onwards
We urge you to be present for the event with your friends, family, colleagues and concerned citizens to be a part of this effort to make our collective voice heard against Hate and for unity of diversity.  You are encouraged to bring a board stating “Lets Rally for Unity – Hate Has No Place in Sri Lanka” if possible and join us in this effort. The events will be multilingual.
Please forward this to your networks and urge all who are interested to join us on this Sunday the 27th July @ 4pm near the Outdoor Theatre of Vihara Maha Devi Park
Thank you!
Sent on behalf of Rally For Unity – Hate Has No Place in Sri Lanka

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July 21, 2014 · 9:43 pm

Vested interests push asylum propaganda — thereby profiting from a lucrative trade

Bandula Jayasekera, in The Australian, 9 July 2014

AUSSIES CHECK A-S I couldn’t help reading over and over The Australian’s editorial of July 7 that said: “Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser doesn’t help his standing by likening the return of Tamils to Sri Lanka to handing over Jewish refugees to Nazi Germany. Such intemperance can only damage Mr. Fraser’s cause.” It certainly has, as has the hysterical language in the “lopsided” asylum debate in Australia in the past few days.

A misconception has been created among some Australians regarding asylum-seekers arriving from Sri Lanka because of a huge and very well-funded misinformation campaign carried out by parties with vested interests. Their claims are unfounded and unbelievable. Even Ripley would have said “You cannot believe it” instead of “Believe it or not!” Continue reading →

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July 21, 2014 · 11:27 am

Where In-fighting generates Fervour & Power: ISIS Today, LTTE yesterday

Michael Roberts, courtesy of Groundviews where some prejudiced and one-eyed commentary has already been set in train

“Division and in-fighting will sap and weaken any organisation or ideological current.” This formulation (mine) may seem a common-sense dictum.  Let me challenge this notion with another dictum: “fratricidal militant fission sparks dedication, skill and organisational power.” The recent, explosive expansion in Syria and Iraq of Sunni militants under the banner of ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham) can be placed alongside the rise of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) among Tamil militants in the 1970s-to-90s as potential illustrations of a thesis that undermines common-sense notions. In the LTTE case too one could say that “success breeds legitimacy” as Mendelsohn argues for ISIS in clarifying how that organisation’s military might and its capture of swathes of territory in recent months enabled it to supplant such Al-Qaeda branches as Jabhat al-Nusra (2014a). Continue reading →

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July 19, 2014 · 9:37 am

A Fascist Bhikkhu Force in Sri Lanka?

Tim Hume, CNN, with help from Iqbal Athas, 18 July 2014 … and the original title as “Fascists in saffron robes? The rise of Sri Lanka’s Buddhist ultra-nationalists”

GNANASARA BBS general secretary Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara at a press conference in 2013.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • An ultra-nationalist Buddhist group has been campaigning against Muslims in Sri Lanka
  • The Bodu Bala Sena is blamed by many for inciting religious riots that left 3 Muslims dead
  • A month on, a monk who gave an inflammatory speech before the riots has not been charged
  • Observers say it appears the group is operating with impunity, fuelling the fears of minorities.

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