The government of Sri Lanka; Challenges for 2008

31 Dec 2007

The year 2007 marked one of the politically vibrant years in Sri Lankan history. In the past year, while the war against terrorism being the main success for the country, other different politico-social-economic aspects had its ups and downs. The government not only successfully weather the political storms initiated by UNP and its backing international agents which is later orchestrated by JVP, but also lead the war against terrorism in successful manner. However the economy and corruption remained the weak links in the country in the last year. The year 2008 is going to be crucial in many aspects and the success of the coming year will greatly depends on completing the war in a wining note and starting the economic revival and fight against corruption in new grounds.

The war against terrorism
Last year, the country witnessed the success in the fight against terrorism in all fronts. The Sri Lankan forces must be commended for the enormous commitment and dedication shown in the fight against LTTE, which had transformed into one of the ruthless and powerful terrorist organizations due to weakness and selfishness of past political leadership of this country. It was Mahinda Rajapaksa who is closely backed by his own brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa that led the political leadership for the war. Unlike past governments, Mahinda never let the war to be politicized and he let the battle hardened military leadership to tackle the terrorism. The government made sure that it will not engaged in any act that would jeopardize the moral of the armed forces despite immense political pressure from international community and their local agents in the form of political parties and allied NGO’s.

The SL army successfully repulsed LTTE terrorists from the entire eastern province and now the SL armed forces have completely seized the Wanni jungle which is LTTE terrorists’ last strong hold. In the last year, The SL Navy was successful in sinking seven LTTE ships packed with arms and ammunitions and they have proved to be the most successful operational deep blue navy in the world. Now the sea tiger activities have been fully controlled and their operations have been limited to occasional futile attempts of arm smuggling. The SL air force has become the dark horse in the recent past. The earlier governments were too afraid to use the full potential of air force in the fight against terrorism due to myths spread by LTTE’s political agents in the South. However Mahinda Rajapaksa has not hesitated to unleash full potential of air force in the fight against LTTE. In the last year, Air force was busy bombing the LTTE camps and destroying their training and communication centers, but they had a temporary set back when LTTE black tigers attacked the Anuradhapura air base destroying number of trainer planes and strategic spying air crafts. However SL Air Force was quick to amend its deficiency by hunting Thamil Chellvam, the second in the LTTE rank. In the recent past, Air force has focused more on targeting LTTE leadership. In this backdrop, the reports from Vanni that LTTE self appointed supremo Piripaharan has been injured due to one of the air raids can not easily be set aside.

Its government’s obligation to complete the war in winning track in the early part of 2008, and democracy is established in the North and Eastern provinces. It will not only ease the burden of exorbitant defense expenditure, but relive the burden in the economy for spoon feeding the people in North. Opening access route to the Jafna peninsula by land will save millions of rupees spent on transporting the goods by air and sea.

The challenges in the economy
While the war against terrorism being the shiny ground of the Rajapaksa government, handling of economy has become the weak link and as usual the political opponents were busy make a point on this weakness in the government. It is understandable that the high defense expenditure and war has affected the economy and winning the war within next year will certainly ease the pressure. However, government has equally showed incompetence in doing the basics right in economic front. While Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabya were closely monitoring the war against terrorism, the president despite holding the ministry of finance, showed rather lukewarm interest in shaping the economy. The ministers holding key areas like industrial development, trade and technology, etc proved incompetent in their respective portfolios. It is pity that those open economic gurus jump from UNP to the government that is holding these key ministries. However, contrary to the popular beliefs; they too have proved themselves failed in reviving the economy.

The country witnessed considerable development in infra structures like roads, transportation and energy generation. However the effect of infrastructure development has not fully absorbed to the economy due to lack of industrial development. ‘Gama Naguma’ (raising the villages) and ‘Maga Naguma’ (raising the roads) programs which are guided by president Rajapaksa himself has been successful. The agricultural sector has shown steady development and again this shows that president’s personal influence has been the key to success in this sector. All and all, it clearly shows that the president has not found the correct political leadership to develop the economy and year 2008 demands great commitment of the government to full fill its mission in developing prosperous country.

The International factor
Contrary to the popular myth spread by pro terrorist media agents, the government managed to balance the international community which has been long mislead by pro LTTE media campaigns. While the government was successful in countering pro terrorist mediation of Norway and allied Western countries, it managed to keep the good will of regional giant India. The unique feature of foreign policy of Mahinda Rajapaksa government is the non allied philosophy. He seems to be clever bargaining in line with prevailing global political and economical ground realities. In the last year, Sri Lanka benefited from not only India but its traditional competitors like China and Pakistan. This decade is belonging to Asia and the government has clearly identified importance of having strategic alliance with China and India than US and western countries which are looking at our country for exploitation and market than as a partner. The government has kept good economical and military relationship with rising giant Russia and strategic allied with Iran without unduly antagonizing USA. Again, the personality of Mahinda Rajapaksa was evident over the minister of foreign affaires and his bureaucracy in critical matters and in some cases, the president himself had to interfere and amend the mistakes.

The social and cultural impact
More than else, this government has positively impact in social and cultural affairs. Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed presidency after decade of cultural erosion under JR, CBK and Ranil Wickramasingha. Being a practical Buddhist coming with deep cultural roots of the village, Mahinda Rajapaksa has shown an example for social and cultural values of Sri Lankan society. The anti liquor (mathata thitha) campaign of the government has great success and this has been rated as one of the highly regarded campaigns by the public next to the war against terrorism. The government attitude against slaughtering of animals, new rules against environmental pollutions, stiff action against cultural invasions has been hail by majority of the community, but found equally stiff reaction from comprador and lumpan sectors in Sri Lankan society.

Fight against corruption
This is highly debatable area in contemporary Sri Lankan society. In the recent past, especially in post 1977 era, we could not see any political leader genuinely committed to fight against corruption. Starting from JR to CBK and Ranil, all those politicians never genuinely act against corruption while in the power and unfortunately, so far Mahinda Rajapaksa has not shown much of a different. The first sign of clean politics is to punish those who have been corrupt. But it is unfortunate that Rajapaksa government has to depend on these petty corrupt politicians to preserve majority in the parliament and there is a risk that corruption may sneak in to the current government as well.

It was a mistake by Mahinda Rajapaksa to not dissolve the parliament and continued to work with minority government. However JVP who had allied with right wing CBK in the past, strategically refused enter in to the government giving various false reasons. Therefore, Mahinda Rajapaksa had no option but to ally with UNP. This has paved the way not only patriotic gentlemen politicians but also corrupt ones to cling into the government. Probably the only viable option right now for the president is dissolve the parliament soon after winning the war against terrorism, and look for fresh mandate to wage new war against corrupt politicians. Otherwise, the common people of this country will take on these corrupt politicos just like they serve the political clown Mervin Silva in the verge of the new year!

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Fate of Mervin Silva, a politician, thug and a clown

27 Dec 2007

December 27th mark historic day in Sri lankan politics and media freedom. The incident involved with minister Mervin Silva in the premises of Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation is sending strong signals to both political and judiciary circles in the country that people of this country is not satisfied and no longer willing to tolerate their inability to curb violence unleashed by politicians in the society.

Political history
Mervin Silva entered into politics under the patronage of Mahinda Rajapaksa in Hambanthota district. However, later he left SLFP and joined hand with UNP. He used to be an keen critics of CBK. He used harsh and abusive words to criticize her. But soon after CBK won the presidential election, this shameless political clown got back the membership of SLFP after knelt down and asking for forgiveness in front of CBK in public.

In the general election in 2004, Mervin Silva contested in Colombo district and people of Colombo rejected Mervin Silva and made him the last in the list with only less than 3000 votes from the entire district!

However, by that time, he had managed to add his wife into the National list and defeated Mervin Silva somehow convinced CBK to enter his wife in to the parliament. Later Mervin entered into parliament using this national list seat which was allocated to his wife.

It is said that National list is there for intellectual and professionals to enter into the legislature. However it is unfortunate that national list was used by this clown to enter into the parliament.

It was great shame that president Rajapaksa appointed this crook as the minister of Labor, the same portfolio that president held for some time. The working class of this country believes this appointment as an insult for them.

History of thugery
In September 2007, Chaminda Serasinghe, brother of UNP Western Provincial Councilor Sujeewa Serasinghe, was beaten up by Malaka Silva who is beloved son of Mervin Silva at a night club down Duplication Road. The victim claims that Malaka Silva, along with ten of his bodyguards, assaulted him when he visited a popular latino dance club, to have dinner with a German lady. The lady is believed to be the reason for the brawl, since she had once had an intimate relationship with Junior Silva.

In November 2006 Malaka and two of his bodyguards pleaded guilty for attacking Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) officers, who were on a drug raid at a night club in a five-star hotel. On that occasion, Colombo High Court Judge Upali Abeyratne ordered each of them to pay compensation of Rs. 10,000 and enter into a bond of Rs 100,000 each, to be in good behavior for a year. Malaka Silva is widely believed to be a dealer in the banned substance.

In another incident, both Mervyn and Malaka jointly ran amok and destroyed property at another Colombo night club in 2004. On that occasion, Junior got into a fight at Clancy’s night club and Senior came along with his goons for support. Before long, severe damage was caused to the Clancy’s night club and the Soprano’s Karaoke Bar in the same building. A security guard who witnessed the whole incident told police that it was Mervyn Silva, along with his goons, who had damaged the property of the club. However, a few days later, the security guard had changed his story, presumably under political pressure and gave an affidavit retracting his earlier statement to police. The courts, meanwhile, dismissed the case for the lack of evidence.

Mervin and media
Whenever his sons are at play, Mervin Silva is always there to defend them and his finger is always pointed against the media personals. He has verbally abused media personals in public in numerous occasions. Over the years Sirasa, Swarnavahini and Divaina had been targeted by this clown politician. However the state media had blind eye in all those incidents over the years. It is in this backdrop that Mervin Silva came to question the director of news of Rupavahini Corporation for not telecasting of his petty speech in the opening ceremony of the ‘Mahanama’ bridge in Matara.

It is a comic of his own fate that at last, this bankrupt thug got his due place in the premises of state owned Rupavahini Corporation itself. Though he entered to play the role of a thug, he has to leave the place just like a clown after beaten up by the staff and fellow journalists.

When the justice is not evident
If the past cases involved with minister Mervin Silva and his sons got the due justice and the culprits are penalized in the judiciary system, this incident would never ended in violence. However, when people do not see the justice, it is natural for them to take the law in their hands.
In the last general election people made him the LAST in the preferential list. Still the political helm preferred to select him as a minister. Now people themselves have curbed his thugary and exposed his true clown face. What more people should do to convince the political helm that Mervin is a rejected politician ?

The question begging for answer is does the government and particularly president Mahinda Rajapaksa is willing to amend mistake of appointing a political clown as a minister. If not, the government may have to play heavy political price in the next election.

Related links:
- Season's Greetings to Staff of Rupavahini

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Manipulation of media in the marketing society

23 Dec 2007

We are living in a marketing society where everything and everyone is being sold. Media plays key role in this culture. One must knowledgeable of the mechanism of marketing and its influence in media in order to survive and not being a slave of this vicious cycle. It is important to understand that advertising is not an isolate entity but part of well organized psychological plane.

Preference for stars and not for intellectuals
If one closely analyses popular talk shows and interviews in the media, we can clearly see that they always prefer to ‘chat’ with film stars, singers, beauticians and cooks (a new trend), etc,, rather than intellectuals, professionals or literary persons. Firstly, these programs are sponsored by commercial companies and they are having own their marketing motives. The intellectuals usually do not like questions targeting these sundry things and of course their answers are not going to be favorable to the interest of marketing forces. However the stars certainly entertain this type of questions and their answers are mostly in line with the aspirations of the marketing forces.

Cultural influence of soap opera
The prime time for TV channels are from 7.00 pm to 9.00 pm and most of the private owned media use good part of this so called ‘gold’ time period to telecast soap operas. It all started with showing Indian tele-dramas. However, with the introduction of excessive duty on imports on these tele-dramas, they have found local substitute with pretty much the same quality and themes. One may call it ‘simple enjoyment’ with family stories. However, we should think if this kind of families really exists in our society and if so it should be extremely rare in Sinhala Buddhist culture. The families shown in these tele –dramas are the ones that most of the merchants fancy in the society.

The whole mark of all these tele dramas is that they are extensively emotional and highly flavored with hatred, jealousy and passion and most of the characters are deliberately made to over act. Jealousy is the ultimate affect of desire for competes with each other and this is where marketing people can fit their campaigns. Passion is another breeding ground for exorbitant consuming culture. All these soap tele-dramas are setting high emotional mentality in the viewer and subsequent advertisements are tailor made by psychological experts to fit on for this mental trauma.

Role of the sugary presenters
The use of programme presenters also plays a part in the overall marketing campaign. They are mostly singlish speaking rowdy characters who are willing to ‘chat’ with the viewers/listeners. They not only oddly use English words in between but try to speak Sinhala words in foreign accent. The rule of the game is that the market must be set for Italian pizza, French fries and American cola and not for red rice with vegetables and green leaves. The presenter’s role is to set the foreign mood in the consumer so that they can push the listener/viewer into near by supper market or restaurant which is guided by the subsequent advertisements.

Advertisements
Advertisement is the ultimate targeted weapon that is well engineered by psychological experts. This is where you see a pathetic grand father dancing by mere looking at biriyani, kids cheating their mothers and friends due to greediness, hungry boyfriend behave like an aboriginal swallowing roast chicken legs in a pub in rude manner, etc. Is this the real culture in this country? Certainly this is not part of our traditional well mannered Sinhala Buddhist culture. However, this is the culture that marketing society is striving for their profits! If you are under the mental brain wash of presenters, under the influence of hints of your favorite stars in talk shows and having watched the soap tele drama just a minute ago, certainly you may accept this as the real culture that we are living. That is the person that these advertisements are targeting.

Survival kit for being in the marketing society
Privately owned media itself is a business and those are completely dependent on advertisements for their profits. Advertisement is no longer an isolated entity, but a part of well designed and planned campaign. Advertisements are targeted to a specific consumer oriented segments of the society. Unless these media channels target these specific segments they are not going to get fair share of the advertisements. Therefore, these channels try to attract these specific segments and they will even try to create undue demand in the society so that they can supply.

Unless one clearly understands the modern intricacy in using media for marketing with strong psychological base, he may well end up being a slave of the system. It is up to the individuals to decide if one end up being slaves of the marketing forces and media or live practical and fruitful life which is beneficial to both himself, family and the society.

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A blogger, innocence and terrorism

17 Dec 2007

Blogging has been popular in cyberspace in recent past. People blog on various topics and voice there opinions on various issues, politics, culture, music etc… However it is heart breaking to see if a blogger has to post on fateful issue related to his/her own life or family.

In Sri Lanka only 2.2 % of people have access to internet which is also highly concentrated in capital Colombo and other suburbs. However Mahavilachchiya is a village in Anuradhapura, 245 km from Colombo which is surrounded by Vilpattu National Park from three sides and it has become a role model for E-Village in rural Sri Lankan society. The village of Mahavilachchiya got Internet connections before it got telephone connections thanks to Mesh technology, a project, donated by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The kids in rural Mahavilachchiya were lucky to start blogging in the cyber space before most of others even from urban areas. The genuine innocence and simplicity of Mahavilachchiya community was show cased in most of their blogs.

However, it is tragedy that while they were privileged to get the cutting edge technology and warmth of nature alike, it is terrorism that has hit their lives. Their village is surrounded by Vilpattu National Park from three sides, still they are not unduly agonized by the wild life but it is humans with inhuman agenda in the name of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that has struck their lives in the recent past.

This is the tragedy of young blogger Aruni Pradeepika from Mahavilachchiya. She only managed to post her maiden post about herself and her family few months back in the cyber space.

About Me (August 5, 2007)
Hellow ! Everybody. Welcome to my home page. I am Aruni Pradeepika Karunarathne,known to my friends as Aruni. I was born in Mahavilachchiya, a village about 32 km away from the town of Anuradhapura of North Central Province in Sri Lanka. I am still schooling......................

My Family
There are six of us in our family: myself ,Aruni Pradeepika Karunarathna ;my father, Karunarathna ;my mother ,Dayawathi ;my sister ,Anusha Madhubhashini and and my two brothers , Chamara Pradeep and Darshana Prasad. Below you will find a little more information about each of us. My father’s name is U.B. Karunarathna. My father was born in Elayapaththuwa in Anuradhapura. He is a farmer. He is cultivate our garden year through out. We have a big well. He uses water from this for cultivation. Our Garden has a variety of vegetables like pumpkin, tomatoes etc. He always thinks of our future. He grows teak in our garden. In the paddy field he grows rice. My mother’s name is J.M. Dayawathi. My mother was born in Elayapaththuwa in Anuradhapura. She is a house wife. She is an excellent cook. She is helps my father cultivate our garden and paddy field. She had a dream about us. It is give good education to us.
- Ref: http://arunipradeepika.wordpress.com/2007/08/05/about-me/

The cruelty of terrorism leads her to post her second blog post on the topic of ‘My father’ which unfortunately happened to be regarding missing of her beloved father.

My Father (December 15, 2007 )
My father is a very innecent farmer who lives in rural Mahavilachchiya village. He cultivated paddy in our paddy field and there are many attacks from elephant to our paddy. Since my father went to keep the paddy at night. Also he works hard at Day and night. My fathers faced a greater danger in last year by an elephant attack and yet he is getting medicine. At last August Tuesday night (2007.08.14) my father went to protect the paddy as his daily activity. Everyday my father leaves home about 8.30PM. There was a very shocked incident had to my father at that day. A team of LTTE has kidnapped my father while he is in our paddy field. My father has noisy and ask other farmers to help him. That incident happened at 10.30PM.
- Ref: http://arunipradeepika.wordpress.com/2007/12/15/my-father/

Pradeepika's family had a dream about her and now she has remote hope on her father. The civilized world has helped people of Mahavilachchiya with generosity and humanity. Still terrorism can tear apart all the hopes of innocent kids in very short time. That is why the whole world must unite in the fight against terrorism.

Related posts:
- The tragedy at mahavilachchiya E-Village. A well thought out birthday gift for Piribaharan (Nov 27, 2007)

Ref:
http://arunipradeepika.wordpress.com
http://cerno.wordpress.com/2007/12/16/bloggers-father-abducted-by-ltte/#comments
http://mahavilachchiya.wordpress.com/

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Beyond the budget

14 Dec 2007

After all the hustle and bustle, the government won the budget by 47 votes. Now the parliament has been adjourned until January next year and there will be a period of political stability so that government can concentrate on ending the war against terrorism in winning note and also to set up basis for its economic strategy on national economy. So far the opposition had so many attempts to oust this government with various dead lines and now they should let some time for the government to full fill the mandates in Mahinda Chinthanaya.

The two fold role of JVP
JVP was the master mind behind this unnecessary budget saga and today they decided to abstain in the vote at the eleventh hour of the vote. Even if the JVP voted against the budget as they did in the previous round, it would have passed anyway because government managed to secure more than half (114 out of 255) of the total votes.

The central committee of JVP has been dominated by Marxist extremists from trade unions and their original stand was to vote against the budget. However, there was strong protest against JVP’s original stand from moderate JVP supporters and specially those from rural areas. The leaders of Patriotic National Movement (PNM) had clearly called those who were planning to vote against the budget as traitors and Vimal Weeravansa and Somavansa Amarasingha might have feel the heat than other prominent JVP members.

The proposed national economy under Mahinda Chinthanaya is revolved around developing rural economy and the JVP is fear of loosing its vote base in Hambanthota district due to development in the area. JVP committed historical political mistake by keep away from Mahinda Rajapaksa government and they are still struggling to amend it. The JVP would have better of playing active and progressive role rather than cling in to traditional Marxist political view which is spreading hatred based on class consciousness.

JHU, the reliable ally
Despite all the fuss by other allied parties in the government during the budget period, Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) behaved very responsible manner. The JHU was firm in its stand to protect the government at this critical juncture of fight against terrorism and all the JHU members kept with mandate vested on them by patriotic people of the country. Even Ven Uduve Dhammaloka thero, who has been distinct with JHU main stream politics in the past, stand with JHU and voted for the budget. Ven Udawatthe Nanda thero of JHU attended to vote in the parliament on a trolley after face with a heart attack on previous day. This incident itself clearly depicted the firm commitment shown by JHU to protect the government.

The behavior of ethnic minority parties
Few years back, the CWC and SLMC used to be the king maker and JHU was formed to nullify that effect. Since then both CWC and SLMC leaders have lost its political hay days. On the other hand Mahinda Rajapaksa has been very sensitive to problems of Muslims and upcountry Tamil communities. The sweeping of terrorism from Eastern province has been a great relief for Muslims in those areas and large number of people who were in refugee camps in Putlam district has already settled in cleared areas in Eastern province. The Muslims happened to be the very first beneficiaries of wining the fight against terrorism in the Eastern province. Despite Rauff Hakkem who came from central province crossed over to the opposition, most of the Muslim MPs from the Eastern province vote with the government to show their gratitude.

Parties representing upcountry Tamil community lead by Thonadaman and Chandrasekaran continues to support the government. This is a clear sign that this government is not racist despite its firm commitment against terrorism.

The shadow of CBK is fading
The CBK fraction of SLFP lead by Mangala and Sripathy failed to impress despite their boasts. This clearly shows that both of them lack true political leadership or vote base to recognize as a force. They used to be the darlings of CBK and at that time they got undue favoritism and political power in return. However with the oust of CBK from SL politics, these artificially puffed up political characters have to face the reality. Anura Bandaranaika who has past records to be in the wrong side at crucial periods joined with them in good company and there is hardly any sign that any one else in the government to join them in the future. It is not too long that these political asylum seekers become a burden to the UNP.

UNP, the looser again
The UNP continue to have the backing of vicious international forces and they are well capable of manipulating the media to create big buzz. Still the result of this year’s budget confirmed that money and media alone is not sufficient to grab power. As long as UNP leadership believes in help of international forces and agents of terrorists rather than common people of the country, they will remain with the opposition.

The obligations for the government
The government requested the support of all the parties to pass the budget to win the war against terrorism and boost the economy and people of this country is closely looking to see if they are capable of full filling their pledges.

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JVP, Marxism and Country

13 Dec 2007

Yesterday Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauff Hakim crossed over to opposition with three other followers. This will be good news for LTTE leader Prabakaran who is striving to catch even a straw at this dismal juncture in erosion of his terrorist movement. Government has been successful in all fronts of the fight against terrorism and now the war is at very last stage where hunting of terrorist leaders has started.

It is people that makes great history and culture having ambition to develop and liberate the society from various cultural, military and political invasions. In this backdrop cross over of Rauff Hakim or future possible political jumps of Thondaman is quite understandable. Those leaders having tribal mentality always act in opportunistic nature and they never had national agenda to develop this country. In the recent past, the Sri Lankan armed forces have played their part to perfection with great commitments and sacrifices. However, it is tragedy that it is power politics in Sinhala community that is going to betray the fight against terrorism.

This whole unnecessary political drama is master minded by JVP and they seem to be the only party that enjoying the political instability other than LTTE. The JVP leaders have called this as political drama that they have orchestrated to show the reality of Sri Lankan politics to the people. This is not the first time JVP act in irresponsible and immature manner in Sri Lankan politics. In 1971, JVP leaders believed that they can oust the government and full fill socialist revolution with couple of hundreds of guns and grenades. That political joke ended up in a tragedy where hundreds of so called revolutionist lost their lives in mock attacks to police stations.

In 88/89 period, JVP repeated the same mistake. That time JVP had lost its entire political flavor where they act much as terrorists than revolutionist where they hardly confront with armed forces or police, rather they murdered journalists, religious leaders, educationists and intellectuals. When LTTE terrorism is at its peak in the North, JVP was busy attacking government properties and declaring unofficial curfews to destabilize the government in the South. At that time the enemy of JVP was India and not LTTE. The second round of political clown ship of JVP ended up in thousands of youth and innocent civilians in the South. Almost all the political council members of JVP were murdered and finally they were forced to come back to democracy.

In 1990s, JVP again started campaigning for elections and people of this country pleased that they would be a part of democracy with the renewed leadership. However, it seems that still the political ideology of Marxism is playing its part in the mind of some of the JVP leaders. The Marxism is heavily based on understanding of class in terms of differing relations of production, and as a particular position within such relations. The nursery for Marxism is spreading hatred based on this class consciousness and good part of Marxist believe in final armed revolution than democratic mean to come into power.

This can be only achieved when political instability prevail in the country and one can not spread hatred based on class consciousness while remain with the government. That should be the reason for JVP to put forward various demands to not to enter in to the government. While JVP avert with government of Mahinda Rajapaksa that has committed to national economy, completely stopped the privatization surge, decoupling with IMF and its demands, winning the war against terrorism, they were more than happy to ally with Chandrika Kumarathunga government. We all know Chandrika is opportunistic leader and JVP knows that being an opportunistic party eying for another blood shed; they are better off with that type of leaders than true national leaders like Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Just like fish depend on water for survival, Marxist JVP depends on political instability and spreading hatred based on class consciousness to promote their political ideology. The behavior of JVP on vote for budget on 14 December will showcase whether JVP is committed to democracy or they are eying for another blood shed in the form of violent revolution in near future.

Related posts:
- The dilemma of JVP (Aug 31, 2007)
- Insight into JVP’s pre budget behavior (Nov 05, 2007)
- Analysis into the pre budget vote saga (Nov 18, 2007)
- Fate of JVP in the aftermath of budget 2007 (Nov 19, 2007)

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Tamil Diaspora, Piribaharan and India

7 Dec 2007

Piribaharan’s annual birthday speech for this year strongly mentioned about the need for Tamil people to unite for self governed Tamil country. This is first time that the annual speech is not prepared by LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham and this year’s desperate message is clear red light to political leadership in New Delhi. If Piribaharan’s terrorist movement is aiming autonomy for world Tamil Diaspora, the natural and historical territory is non other than Tamil Nadu state of India.

We are an ancient people with special qualities. We have a unique national identity and national foundation. We have been struggling non-violently and by armed struggle for a very long time against national oppression. We are not terrorists, committing blind acts of violence impelled by racist or religious fanaticism. Our struggle has a concrete, legitimate, political objective. We are struggling only to regain our sovereignty in our own historical land where we have lived for centuries, the sovereignty which we lost to colonial occupiers. We are struggling only to reestablish that sovereignty and rebuild our nation. The Sinhala nation is continuing to reject our just and civilized demands for freedom. Instead, it has declared a genocidal war on our land and our people. Behind the smokescreen of fighting terrorism, it is creating immense human misery.

Despite our people enduring injustice and oppression, facing death, destruction and massive displacement, no country, no nation, no international organization has raised its voice on our behalf. We face this situation alone because, although 80 million Tamils live all around the globe, the Tamils do not have a country of their own.
- Pirabaharan's annual birtday Speech, 2007

Tamil Diaspora
Diaspora comes from the Greek word ‘diaspeirein’ to mean disperse or scatter. Diaspora is the dispersal or the scattering of persons with a common identity such as culture and language in different directions. Unlike many other ethnic groups, Tamils were not governed by a single political entity during most of their history; Tamilakam, the traditional name for the Tamil lands, was politically united for only a brief period, between the 9th and 12th centuries, under the Chola Empire.

Tamil people
Tamil people are a Dravidian people from the Indian subcontinent. The historical oldest Tamil communities evolved in southern India. Tamil Nadu is the historical cradle of Tamil nation with currently 62 million of Tamil people living. The culture and artwork of this region are considered to be some of the oldest in the world. It is home to one of the classical languages of India, Tamil. The language in the area has been documented as being around for at least 5,000 years in written form, but was spoken long before that.

There are also a number of Tamil emigrant communities scattered around the world, especially in central Sri Lanka, Malaysia, South Africa, Singapore, and Mauritius with more recent emigrants found in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United States, and Europe.

Origin of Tamils
The origins of the Tamil people, like those of the other Dravidian peoples, are unknown, although genetic and archaeological evidence suggests a possible migration into India around 6000 BCE. The earliest clear evidence of the presence of the Tamil people in modern Tamil Nadu are the megalithic urn burials, dating from around 1000 BCE and onwards, which have been discovered at various locations in Tamil Nadu, notably in Adichanallur.[1][2] In modern times, ancient Tamil literature like Sangam poetry and epics like Silapthigaaram have been interpreted as making references to a lost land known as Kumari Kandam.[3] Wars between the kings and the chieftains were frequent and these wars appear to have been fought to assert hegemony and demand tribute, rather than to subjugate and annex those territories.

Classical period
From around the third century BCE onwards, three royal dynasties—the Cholas, the Cheras and the Pandyas—rose to dominate the ancient Tamil country. Each of these dynasties had its own realm within the Tamil-speaking region of South India. Classical literature and inscriptions also describe a number of Velirs, or minor chieftains, who collectively ruled over large parts of central Tamil Nadu. Wars between the kings and the chieftains were frequent, when they are relatively powerful; these rulers invade northern areas of Sri Lanka as well and hold the power for short periods especially during the time periods of divisions and conflicts of Sinhala kings.

The western Tamil lands became increasingly politically distinct from the rest of the Tamil lands after the Chola and Pandya empires lost control over them in the 13th century. They developed their own distinct language and literature, which increasingly grew apart from Tamil, evolving into the modern Malayalam language by the 15th century.[4]

From the 17th century onwards, European powers began establishing settlements and trading outposts in the region. A number of battles were fought between the British, French and Danish in the 18th century, and by the end of the 18th century most of Tamil Nadu was under British rule.

When India became independent in 1947, Madras Presidency became the Madras State, comprised of present-day Tamil Nadu, coastal Andhra Pradesh, northern Kerala, and the southwest coast of Karnataka. The state was subsequently split along linguistic lines. In 1953, the northern districts formed Andhra Pradesh. Under the States Reorganization Act in 1956, Madras State lost its western coastal districts. The Bellary and South Kanara districts were ceded to Mysore state, and Kerala was formed from the Malabar district and the former princely states of Travancore and Cochin. In 1968, Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu.

The current reality
There are an estimated total of 77 million Tamils around the world and around 62 million (80%) out of the total Tamil population live in India and only less than 4 % of Tamils resides in Sri Lanka and half of that Tamil population is migrated Indian Tamil workers living in up country areas.

Tamil population in different countries.
India => 62.1 Million
Sri Lanka => 3.0 Million
Malaysia => 1.8 Million
Canada => 0.3 Million
South Africa => 0.25 Million

Due to on going LTTE terrorist activities, the Tamil population in Sri Lanka is on the drop where part of Tamils have moved to predominantly Sinhala areas like Colombo and others have permanently migrated to western countries.

The majority of Tamils in India is concentrated in southern Indian state Tamil Nadu and it naturally has the historical, cultural and demographic factors for Tamil autonomy than any other country. In this backdrop, this years Piribaharan’s annual speech is certainly sending sock waves to Indian politics than Sri Lankans.

Ref:
1. K. De B. Codrington (October 1930). "Indian Cairn- and Urn-Burials" (in English). Man 30: 190–196. Retrieved on 2007-05-03. “...at Perambair & Pallavaram a second type of burial exists in legged urns...”
2. Comparative excavations carried out in Adichanallur in Thirunelveli district and in Northern India have provided evidence of a southward migration of the Megalithic culture - K.A.N. Sastri, A History of South India, pp49–51
3. Sumathi Ramaswamy (August 2000). "History at Land's End: Lemuria in Tamil Spatial Fables" (in English). The Journal of Asian Studies 59 (3): 575–602. Retrieved on 2007-05-03.
4. "Malayalam first appeared in writing in the vazhappalli inscription which dates from about 830 AD." Writing Systems and Languages of the world. Omniglot. Omniglot.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-15.
5. Sri Lanka Population by ethnic group and district, Census 1981, 2001
6. Tamil population by nation

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Over come fear psychosis, the need of the hour

4 Dec 2007

The primary goal of terrorism is to inflict psychological injury and physical injury is a byproduct of the delivery method. Terrorist attacks aims at creating social, economical, political and psychological problems among the general public resulting social disorganization and public disturbance in society.

The genuine war against LTTE terrorism started on 26 July, 2006 by opening the sluice gates of the Mavil Oya (Mavil Aru) reservoir which has been forcibly closed by LTTE terrorist to deprive drinking water to the innocent people in the area. Since then the war has passed different stages from strength of LTTE to loosing grounds and political power in the North. When a terrorist organization is strong they prefer to attack military targets in order to minimize pressure from international community and they strive for political gains. However, when they are in back foot, they never hesitate to use terrorist tactics in the society.

So far the ever professional and determined armed forces of Sri Lanka have weakened the terrorist by gaining both territory and hearts of the people. It all resulted with great commitments and sacrifices of the SL forces and brave people in so called border villages. Now this is the last stage of the fight against terrorism and this is the testing time of the Sri Lankan society in the South, especially the middle and upper class society in the urban areas. The final out come of the fight against terrorism will be decided by will power of the society to hold the winning flag for few more months by over coming the fear psychosis that terrorist are targeting, until the elite forces of SL army completely overrun the bunkers in the Wanni jungle and kill the terrorist leader Piribaharan.

Fear psychosis
There has been couple of bomb explosions recently in Colombo and we may expect few more in the near future. Some weak minded people in the society are already suffering from ‘fear psychosis’ because of the recent traumatic incidents. Naturally, people become afraid of these situations, so they try to avoid public areas and that will affect social life. In recent weeks, reports on terrorist attacks have dominated the news media. Such events and excessive media campaigns on destruction, dead bodies and coffins, weeping relations, etc may result in traumatic stress that further affects part of people in the country.

While some individuals face such incidents with minimal disruption to their daily life others who are inherently weak in character may experience extreme stress or traumatic incidents, suffer major and painful psychological problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.

Effect on economy
The tension in urban cities is much more intensive than in rural areas and that contributes directly to the deterioration of mental stability. It also affects productivity which has a negative affect on the development of the country.

How to overcome Fear psychosis
As police, other emergency responders and anti terrorist experts have found, the most effective antidote to the fear and psychosomatic reactions in such situations is situational awareness and education. The public should accept the fact that a certain level of danger does exist -- and without situational awareness, a general understanding of risks and proper responses, or a contingency plan, the potential for deadly results is amplified.

Security checks, a necessary evil
Security checks are a necessary evil that a country at war with a desperate enemy all out to wreak havoc has to learn to live with. War is hell and the very antithesis of normalcy. One cannot have both at the same time. However, vehicle checks conducted slapdash only aggravate the public woes. Public resentment always translates into loss of popular support for a government. On the one hand it has to keep a ruthless elusive enemy at bay and on the other it has to be mindful of the political implications of the extraordinary security measures it has to adopt. It shouldn't take vehicle checks lightly. It is time the government gave serious thought to the pressing need for planning security checks better so that the smuggling of explosives could be prevented without causing any more suffering to a harassed public.

Not to be a second blow to the economy
Haphazard checking serves little purpose. They could be as damaging to the country as bombs. The economic cost that the country has to bear due to the loss of man hours and waste of fuel due to vehicle checks is enormous. Mayhem and the attendant sense of gloom and doom augur ill for the economy.

Who are really at threat?
The public are already at the end of their tether. Every time a VIP travels on a public road, they have to freeze themselves or be shoved into wayside gutters by his bodyguards who wave their hands and guns frantically and menacingly. If an ordinary citizen see a culprit whom they have made last in preferential votes in the general election, sneaked into the parliament and holding ministerial port folios flying with security guards, it is not going to serve the purpose. This is the time to clearly identify the set of people who really need extra security rather than escorting every Dick, Tom and Henry.

Invest on Technology
Ensuring public safety requires investment in technology. It is not only ordinary metal detectors that we need but large scanners capable of screening vehicles. Such equipment will help avoid unwanted delays and hardship to the public. The boot of a car is not the only place where explosives could be concealed.

Beware of opportunistic
Opportunistic pranksters and others quickly find ways to exploit the mentality. It may range from a psychotic trying to play practical jokes to white collar terrorist agents in the form of media personals eying to spread fear in the society and bankrupt politicians looking for means to grab power by creating instability in the country.

Decisive Factor
The manner in which the society in the South over come fear psychosis will determine the winning or loosing of fight against terrorism. If the people do not give in to terror, the forces will overrun last bunker of terrorists in the Wanni jungle in few months, if not the whole cycle will have to be restarted after another round of peace talks. The nation has simple decision to make and considering the proud history and cultural heritage of the people of Sri Lanka, one can expect it to the correct decision. The collaboration between the state and the people is the key to success.

Related Posts:
- “Great heroes’ day” speech of Piribaharan and Psychological aspect of Terrorism
- History repeats, only when lessons are not learned

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Success of Putin and a lesson from Russia

3 Dec 2007

Russian President Vladimir Putin's party has won a landslide election victory, official results show. With nearly all ballots counted, his United Russia had 64.1% of the vote while the Communist Party only having 11.6% of the vote. This is clear sign of enormous support of Russian people on their national leader. Mr Putin is constitutionally obliged to stand down after his second term as president ends in March next year. Mr Putin announced earlier this year that he may seek the office of prime minister after his presidential term ends.

Putin entered into Russian politics by the time it was in the misery of poverty under political clownship under Gorbachev and Yeltsin, despite all the pledges from the west for new Russia. Territorial integrity of Russia has been under sever threats with Chechniyan war had been branded by west as another ‘miserable war’, ‘a war that can never be won’, etc. With weak leadership that has been dancing to the tune of West, large part of people was forced to have the same negative view as well.

It all has changed and Russia is now marching towards its supremacy again. However, this time it is not under old communist Russia, but new patriotic and national Russia which is stronger than ever.

There are many lessons to learn for Sri Lankan people from the contemporary Russian politics and there are some interesting parallels. Though we are a tiny emerald island in the Indian ocean, Sri Lankan people has great history and dignity as Russians!

Early Days of Putin
Vladimir Putin graduated from the International Branch of the Law Department of the Leningrad State University in 1975 and was recruited into the KGB. At the University he also became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and has never formally resigned from it.

Vladimir Putin was appointed one of three First Deputy Prime Ministers, which enabled him later on that day to be appointed acting Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation by President Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin's main opponents and would-be successors, Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov and former Chairman of the Russian Government Yevgeniy Primakov, were already campaigning to replace the ailing president, and they fought hard to prevent Putin's emergence as a potential successor. Putin's law-and-order image and his unrelenting approach to the renewed crisis in Chechnya soon combined to raise his popularity and allowed him to overtake all rivals.

Both in Russia and abroad, Putin's public image was forged by his tough handling of the war. On assuming the role of acting President on December 31, 1999, Putin went on a previously scheduled visit to Russian troops in Chechnya.

First Chechen War
The First Chechen War was fought between Russia and Chechnya from 1994 to 1996 and weak political leadership under Boris Yeltsin resulted in Chechnya's de facto independence from Russia. After the initial campaign of 1994–1995, culminating in the devastating Battle of Grozny, Russian federal forces attempted to control the mountainous area of Chechnya but were set back by Chechen guerrilla warfare and raids on the flatlands (including mass hostage takings beyond Chechnya) in spite of Russia's overwhelming manpower, weaponry, and air support. The resulting widespread demoralization of federal forces, and the almost universal opposition of the Russian public to the conflict, led Boris Yeltsin's government to declare a ceasefire in 1996 and sign a peace treaty a year later. The conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen separatists remained unresolved; in 1999 it resumed in the form of the Second Chechen War.

Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War is a military campaign conducted by Russia starting August 26, 1999, in which Russian forces largely recaptured the separatist region of Chechnya. The Second Chechen War was started in retaliation for the Dagestan War and Russian apartment bombings. In late August and September 1999, Russia mounted a massive air campaign over Chechnya, with the stated aim of wiping out militants who invaded Dagestan the previous month. The Chechen conflict entered a new phase on October 1, 1999, when Russia's new Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that Russian troops would initiate a land invasion.

During the initial campaign, Russian military and pro-Russian Chechen paramilitary faced Chechen separatists in open combat, but eventually seized the Chechen capital of Grozny in February 2000 after a winter siege. After the full-scale offensive, Chechen guerrilla resistance throughout the North Caucasus region continued to inflict heavy Russian casualties and challenge Russian political control over Chechnya for several more years. Chechen separatists also carried out attacks against civilians in Russia, such as notably taking hostages inside a Moscow theater in 2002 and later doing so in a school in Beslan, North Ossetia in 2004.

In 2003, a referendum was held in Chechnya adopting a new constitution which declares the Republic as a part of Russia. The situation has been gradually stabilized with the parliamentary elections and the establishment of a regional government.

The Russians have succeeded in installing a pro-Moscow Chechen regime, composed of the former separatists, and eliminating most of the more prominent Chechen separatist leaders, including former president Aslan Maskhadov and leading warlord Shamil Basayev.

Second term
On March 14, 2004, Putin was re-elected to the presidency for a second term, earning 71 percent of the vote. A significant amount of Putin's second term has been focusing on domestic issues. According to various Russian and western media reports, Putin is extremely concerned about the ongoing demographic problems, such as the death rate being higher than the birth rate, cyclical poverty, and housing concerns within the Russian Federation. In his May 2006 annual speech, Putin proposed increasing maternity benefits and prenatal care for women. Putin has also been quite strident about the need to reform the judiciary.

In recent years, the political philosophy of Putin's administration has been described as "sovereign democracy". The political term recently gained wide acceptance within Russia itself and unified various political elites around it. According to its supporters, Presidential policies must above all be supported by a popular majority in Russia itself and not be determined from outside the country; such popular support constitutes the founding principle of a democratic society.

Domestic support and foreign criticism
Despite widespread public support in Russia, Putin has many critics. Reforms made under Putin’s rule have been criticized by independent Russian media outlets and many American commentators as antidemocratic.

During the term, Putin has been widely criticized in the West for what many observers consider a wide-scale crackdown on media freedoms. At the same time, according to 2005 research by VCIOM, the share of Russians approving censorship on TV has grown in a year from 63% to 82%. According to public opinion surveys conducted by Levada Center, Putin's approval rating was 81% in June 2007, and the highest of any leader in the world

Current state
Russian President Vladimir Putin's party has won a landslide election victory again and people of Russia have approved strong national leadership of United Russia Party. It was once ‘misssarable war of chechniya’ under feeble political clowns. There was a time when so called Russian leaders going after Western leaders to beg money. It has all changed now and it all needed strong determination and will power of people and great leadership from true born leader. The lesson for us is that whatever the political or economic view, the personality and strong bond of the leader to the people of the country play big part in success of the country.

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Free media or his master’s voice?

1 Dec 2007

The free media movement and various INGO right organizations have been issuing press releases and statements against government’s intervene in preventing broadcast of Piribaharan’s birthday speech on BBC Sandeshaya Sinhala program.

Sri Lankan armed forces have engaged in full scale battle against the LTTE terrorists in the North and they are at the verge of the overall win after so much of sacrifice and commitment. Good part of the war is fought in the mind of the troops and support of people and certainly security forces do not want to let their enemy leader’s psychological boosting growl being telecast in high time of the war. Few hours before the self appointed terrorist supremo deliver his annual speech, the Kaffir and Mig fighter jets of Sri Lanka air force were able to successfully attack and flatten the Voice of Tiger (VOT) broadcasting center in Killinocchi.

In the mean time, most of the electronic media organizations in the south operated in very responsible manner by not telecasting terrorist leader’s speech live or making it headlines. The people of this country have right to know the key points of the speech of the terrorist leader to get hold of its military and political context. However, telecasting full speech live, thereby providing him undue political recognition is certainly supporting the LTTE and its terror mission. It is clearly to undermine the SL air force attack on VOT head quarters in the North, just a couple of hours ago.

However, MTV and Sirasa shamelessly came forward to act as Voice of Tiger (VoT) in the south and broadcast Piribaharan’s full speech in a hurry and also they made it their head lines in the prime time news bulletins.

Unlike in the past, the government has identified all its war fronts in the fight against terrorism, most importantly the psychological media war front of the terrorists. While MTV/Sirasa act as LTTE’s local media front, it is colonial BBC that has been supporting LTTE in the international front. Unfortunately, still Sri Lankan government has failed to shed their colonial media tail of BBC ‘Sandeshaya’ program being telecast in governments owned national service of SLBC. However, government clearly identified the possible threat in the ‘Sandeshaya’ and promptly took steps to cancel the live telecast. ‘Sandeshaya’ program was recorded and Piribaharan’s speech was removed and the edited version was telecast thirty minutes later than the scheduled time. This is clearly a proactive step considering the critical juncture of fight against terrorism and its psychological impact on the society and armed forces. Sri Lanka is no longer a colony of British and the government has sole rights to intervene in matters related to national security.

It is in this backdrop that these so called free media organizations funded by their western masters have put up another media fire work against the government for this timely intervene. LTTE’s military mechanism is no longer effective and SL Navy has completely frozen arms supply from the sea and Wanni jungle is completely encircled by elite commandos of the SL army. LTTE knows that it is no longer effective trying to send arms and ammunitions to the north, after all the efforts ended up in either bay of Bengal or deep blue waters in Indian Ocean. Therefore, they will pump up all their funds collected in western countries to INGOs, their backing media organizations and individual hired media personals in the south.

Next, these media racketeers will come in front of Fort Railway station or Lipton circle to protest against banning broadcasting of terrorist leader Piribaharan’s birthday speech. It will not be too long that patriotic people in this country spitting in the side of them if not straight on their face, when passing through these pro LTTE mock media protests.

Related posts:
- The new partners of Politics: Business, Media and Marketing
- “Great heroes’ day” speech of Piribaharan and Psychological aspect of Terrorism

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