Thuppahi's Blog

November 3, 2018 · 9:41 am

A Naked Display of Double Standards by the West in Sri Lanka

Tamara Kunanayakam, in Island, 3 November 2018, where the title is Tamara: Why was West silent on wrongdoings of former regime” ………..Note: the highlighting is the work of The Editor, Thuppahi

Tamara Kunanayakam, Economist, Expert on international affairs, Former Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN at Geneva, Former Cha”irperson/Rapporteur of the UN Intergovernmental Working Group on the Right to Development yesterday asked why West had been silent on some grave wrongdoings of the ousted Premier Wickremesinghe. Kunanayakam, speaking at a briefing organized by Eliya Organization said: “What is the explanation for the West’s silence on the postponement of local government elections for some three years and delays in holding Provincial Council elections, all under the Premiership of Ranil Wickremesinghe?

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November 1, 2018 · 3:18 pm

Regulating Sabda Pujā: Did British Regulation of “Noise Worship” Trigger the 1915 Riots in Ceylon?’

Shamara Wettimuny, a reprint of an article in the LSE International History Blog, in May 2018, where the title is Regulating Religious Rites: Did British Regulation of “Noise Worship” Trigger the 1915 Riots in Ceylon?’

Violence targeting the Muslim community has recently increased in Sri Lanka. Yet the scale of the violence is relatively small compared to events that took place a hundred years ago. In 1915, a dispute over a Buddhist procession near a mosque led to island-wide communal riots in Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka). This article revisits this historical event. It explores how the rise of ethno-religious nationalist ideologies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries converged with British regulation of ‘noise worship’ to trigger the most destructive episode of violence between Sinhala-Buddhists and Muslims to date.

Kandy in early 20th century

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November 1, 2018 · 3:15 pm

Young Tamara Kunanayakam in Central Europe, 1970s-to-1980s

Michael Roberts

With Tamara Kunanayakam what you see and hear is what you get: no subterfuges, straight-talking without frills or obscurantisms. Seeking to explore the events in Geneva from 2011 when she was our Permanent Representative there for a short spell, I met her in her rented home in Battaramulla in June 2016 in the convivial presence of her French husband and their dog Hombrito.[1]

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November 1, 2018 · 9:34 am

Illegal! Sirisena’s Coup Indefensible insists Welikala

Asanga Welikala, in Groundviews, 1 November 2018, where the title reads “Nailing Canards: Why President Sirisena’s Actions Remain Illegal, Unconstitutional, And Illegitimate””

There have been intense public debates over the meaning and interpretation of the Constitution, and especially the far-reaching changes introduced by the Nineteenth Amendment in 2015, since the dramatic and ongoing attempt at an unconstitutional transfer power that began on the evening of Friday 26^th October. Unfortunately, the discussion has been clouded by the attempts of those who are trying to uphold the approach taken by Maithripala Sirisena and Mahinda Rajapaksa, to present arguments that are – at best – simply wrong, without any valid legal basis, or based on a lack of understanding of the Constitution – or at worst – motivated by a deliberate desire to lie, dissimulate, distort, and misinform the public.

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November 1, 2018 · 2:30 am

The DBS Jeyaraj Column in DAILY MIRROR

Ashraff: Single most popular mass figure in Eastern Muslim politics

Tuesday, 23 October 2018 00:20

October 23 is the 70th Birth anniversary of legendary Muslim Congress leader M.H.M. Ashraf…

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November 1, 2018 · 2:21 am

Turmoil in the North Too? Jeyaraj Clarifies

D. B.S. Jeyaraj, in Daily Mirror, 27 October 2018

Canagasabapathy Visuvalingam Wigneswaran has announced the launch of a new political formation known as the “Thamizh Makkal Koottani” meaning Tamil People’s Alliance (TPA). The retired Supreme Court judge who was until a few days ago the Northern Province Chief Minister has split from the “Thamizh Thesiya Koottamaippu” or the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and declared his intent to form the TPA which is expected to electorally-target the TNA. Some may even argue that the raison d’etre for the ‘new’ TPA is the objective of politically undermining the ‘old’ TNA.
The Tamil National Alliance is the premier political configuration of Sri Lankan Tamils. The chief constituent of the TNA is the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) referred to in English as the Federal Party (FP). The TNA contests under the House symbol of the ITAK in elections. C.V. Wigneswaran contested the Northern Provincial Council elections in September 2013 as the chief ministerial candidate of the TNA. He contested as the ITAK candidate in the Jaffna District with the backing of other TNA constituents at that time, namely the TELO, PLOTE, TULF and EPRLF.

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October 31, 2018 · 3:45 am

Tamara Kunanayakam slams Western Intervention in Lanka’s Political Order…. and evokes Egyptian Comparisons

Tamara Kunanayakam: her Eliya Briefing: entitled “On the current political crisis in Sri Lanka” Colombo, 30 October 2018

I will express myself on the international aspects of the political crisis in which the country finds itself today and their far-reaching consequences for the country’s sovereignty and independence, which must be taken into account in all its dimensions if an appropriate response is to be formulated. We are facing blatant external interference in a domestic political process, an act inadmissible to any sovereign state. A climate of insecurity is being created artificially by the defeated allies of the West whose objective may be to provoke a violent situation that will provide justification for external intervention to restore them to power, if necessary, by force.

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October 30, 2018 · 2:45 pm

Galle Literary Festival 2019: The Stars

Sunday Times, 26 October 2018: “Fairway Galle Literary Festival 2019 : Attending Authors Revealed”

The Fairway Galle Literary Festival is set to take place from January 16- 20, 2019. This marks the tenth anniversary of The Festival, establishing itself as a much anticipated and highly acclaimed fixture on the South-East Asian cultural calendar. The list of attending authors was revealed yesterday at a media briefing. The author briefs are given below