October 3, 2015 · 1:57 pm

Sri Lanka’s Balancing Act between the Powers

Dániel Balázs and Patrick Mendis, in Daily News, 2 October 2015, where the title is “Colombo Consensus”

Modi and MS Modi and Sirisena

The new Sri Lankan government is re-balancing its foreign policy, drifting away from China’s orbit toward a more equidistant engagement with India and the United States. With the growing economic importance of the Indian Ocean, the geo-strategically located Sri Lanka is becoming crucial within the strategic trajectory of the key regional power players: the United States, India and China. The island nation has therefore sought to reap the benefits of the great power competition, and the three nations have had to adjust their engagement accordingly. Continue reading →

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October 2, 2015 · 3:37 pm

Refining and Reforming Lanka’s Electoral System: A Fairer Scheme

An “Optimistic Psephologist,” in The Island, 26 September 2015 …… A Mixed Electoral System for Sri Lanka

The results of General Election 2015 by percentage of votes and seats were as follows –

article_image

It would appear that there is a discrepancy in the proportion of votes against seats, particularly between the JVP and the TNA. Continue reading →

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October 1, 2015 · 10:59 am

One-Eyed Zealousness: Extremist Australians For and Against the Tamil Cause in Lanka

Michael Roberts

The 60 year-old Tasmanian lady, Dianah Paramour’s campaign (Fig. 01) against specific activities of personnel in Australia, both Tamil Australian and Anglo-Australian, who have been vigorously advocating the claims of the Tamils and/ the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka is a story of zealousness. Zealotry in its many forms has been one of my major areas of study (see “Understanding Zealotry,” 2006).[1] That is why I have highlighted it by presenting details of a specific public confrontation arising from her intervention (Roberts, “Diannah,” 2015).

DP 2- Fig. 1-–Paramour

Paramour’s intervention on the side of the Sri Lankan state (and implicitly its Sinhalese majority) via the deployment of a Sri Lankan flag at a pro-LTTE gathering can be deemed eccentric and maverick. The handful of Australians who have actively spoken out about events in Sri Lanka have generally been staunch supporters of the Sri Lankan Tamil minority. They have usually been of liberal, radical and/or Left persuasion. These few have also been well-credentialed members of the professions and included university academics, legal advocates and journalists – some of considerable eminence. John Dodd, Jake Lynch,[2] Geoffrey Robertson, Gordon Weiss, Sarah Hanson, Senator Lee Rhiannon, Antony Loewenstein,[3] Bruce Haigh,[4] Christine Milne, Damien Kingsbury, Trevor Grant and Tim Goodman are among those who have revealed zealousness in their advocacy of the plight of the Sri Lanka Tamils. Continue reading →

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September 27, 2015 · 3:03 pm

The Shortcomings of Zeid’s OHCHR Report

Neville Ladduwahetty, whose chosen title in The Island is different: “An analysis of OHCHR report on Sri Lanka”

Scales of justiceIn 2014 the UN Human Rights Council by resolution A/HRC/25/L.1/Rev.1 authorized the High Commissioner for Human Rights “To undertake a comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka during the period covered by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, and to establish the facts and circumstances of such alleged violations and of the crimes perpetrated with a view to avoiding impunity and ensuring accountability…” (Clause 10b of Resolution). In pursuance of this resolution, a Report titled “OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka” was made public. The following analysis relates to this report. Continue reading →

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September 25, 2015 · 3:11 pm

A System Change and Trojan Horse accepted by Ranil-Sirisena Combo, says Tamara Kunanayakam

Tamara Kunanayakam, whose preferred title is “What the Ranil – Sirisena Government will not tell you!US draft resolution : a ‘system change’,”

 A US-sponsored draft resolution against Sri Lanka is back on the Human Rights Council agenda, this time with a vengeance and despite the Ranil – Sirisena government’s conciliatory and obsequious pro-Washington, pro-Western stance! There is no more Mahinda Rajapaksa to blame, no more pro-Beijing foreign policy, no more Non-Alignment, no more ‘megaphone diplomacy’ or ‘megaphone diplomats’, no more corruption. History dawned in Sri Lanka only on 8 January, before that, there was only darkness, violence and obscurantism. Today, enlightened leaders have flooded the land with newness, goodness, transparency, and unity, along with privileged relations with a much-maligned West.

tamara 11 So, what went wrong? A generous response would be our new, enlightened leaders read all the signs wrong. An accurate response would be they have something to gain from subservience to Washington’s interests. Continue reading →

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September 21, 2015 · 11:45 am

Killing with Clean Hands in the War on ISIS?

Brendan Nicholson, courtesy of The Australian, 18 September 2015, where the title is “Mortality meets Morality.  Bomb accuracy is undermined when terrorists hide amid civilians”

Kilometres above the ancient landscapes of Iraq and Syria, RAAF fighter-bomber crews are linked to surveillance equipment so sophisticated they can tell if someone below is likely to be adult or child, male or female, or a member of Islamic State. That’s why almost all of the nearly 1000 bombs they’ve dropped so far have hit their targets precisely. It’s also why the US-led ­coalition’s aircrews bring their bombs home on about 75 per cent of missions — as Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 Hornets did after their first sortie over Syria.

ISIS arena

The RAAF carried out its first “effective” airstrike against Islamic State in Syria several days after it was cleared to operate there, on Monday destroying an armoured personnel carrier near Al-Hasakah in the country’s northeast. Australian crews spotted the armoured vehicle in a compound. They passed the information back to the coalition’s Combined Air Operations Centre via the RAAF’s Wedgetail command and control aircraft, which was part of the mission along with a RAAF air-to-air refueller. Continue reading →

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September 21, 2015 · 11:16 am

Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid in Different Moods

zEID ADMONISHING In Schoolmasterly Presentation of Self

MANGAL AND ZEID… continuing to admonish with support alongside Continue reading →

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September 21, 2015 · 9:25 am

The UNHCR’s H-word: Rajan, GL and Jehan’s Thoughts

I. Rajan Philips: “The Report on Sri Lanka: Horrific vs Ethnic Facts and External vs Internal Hybridity,” in The Island, 19 September 2015

rajan philips Philips

G.L.Peiris1 Peiris  jehan P 22 Perera 

Two h-adjectives have come into circulation after the release of the UNHRC Report on Sri Lanka, last Wednesday, in Geneva: horrific and hybrid. There is nothing new in the facts stipulated as horrific in Geneva, but stipulating them as horrific does not bridge the ethnic gap in the agreement about those facts. What is new is the recommendation to establish a hybrid court having international jurists collaborating with their local counterparts. But can international hybridity overcome Lanka’s nationally divisive ethnicity? Would it make more sense to promote internal hybridity while privileging external hybridity? Internal hybridity must involve Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim judges and lawyers and other officials professionally working together rather than politically fighting one another. Just as important, transitional justice must involve a more inclusive and reflective process instead of the usual adversarial court room drama. Hybrid or otherwise, an adversarial court process will invariably degenerate into a pettifogging theatre generating mutual recriminations rather than facilitating inter-ethnic reconciliation. In Sri Lanka’s litigious culture there are quite a few legal luminaries itching to argue the case for patriotism with or without a political brief. Continue reading →

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September 18, 2015 · 3:12 pm

Abbott stumps Costello in Australia

A and C - Pic from http://www.britannica.com

COSTELLO   :  I want to talk about the unemployment rate in Australia.

ABBOTT: Good Subject…..Terrible Times.  It’s 5.6%.

COSTELLO:  That many people are out of work?

ABBOTT: No, that’s 23%.

COSTELLO: You just said 5.6%

ABBOTT:  5.6% Unemployed.

COSTELLO:  Right 5.6% out of work.

ABBOTT: No, that’s 23%. Continue reading →

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September 18, 2015 · 1:52 pm

Diannah Paramour arouses an Australian Tamil Tiger Nest, Mid-2015

Michael Roberts

Diannah Paramour is a lady in her sixties who sees herself as “a humanitarian” and an Aussie patriot vehemently opposed to all forms of terrorism nesting within the Australian continent. Arising from circumstances that I have yet to fully decipher,[1] the following sequence of events unfolded in mid-2015:

  • Paramour took umbrage in May 2015 at the display of an LTTE flag at an Australian institution (see image of Geelong Trades Union Building below) and
  • When she discovered that a Tamil organisation was holding a public meeting at the Springvale Town Hall in Melbourne on the 18thMay 2015 in association with the Australian Trades Union to mark the “genocide” of the Sri Lankan Tamil people, she used her own resources to fly there[2] and attend the meeting with her daughter Caterina as companion.
  • After watching and listening to the speeches and dramatic performances watched by an audience of circa 450 at the Town Hall, she was aroused by the display of a Tamil Tiger flag alongside the Australian flag and challenged the performance by walking up to the front and displaying the Sri Lankan flag and some pictorial illustrations of LTTE atrocities.[3]
  • She was immediately surrounded by a lot of men and became the victim of a scuffle where the yanking and jostling left her injured. In a recent email she elaborates upon these consequences: “One fracture right hand when the man bent my hand after grabbing it and holding it tightly backwards, he didn’t let go even when I called out ‘you’ve broken my finger’ because I felt a snap and sharp pain in my little finger so I assumed it was my finger. Broken rib left side caused by two men pushing me back against the stage. Tendon left shoulder broken trying two times to hold onto my flag, as I pulled back my flag the first time his second successful attempt was more violent. My bones are easy to break, so is my heart but not my duty to serve Sri Lanka, no one will break that” (email, 19 September 2015)
  • Police had been called and she was taken to a nearby police station where she accused Tim Goodman (Secretary, Australian Trades Union, who was one of the organisers) of assault.

Continue reading →

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