The challenge of defeating the political wing of LTTE separatism

27 Jan 2008

Until 2006, there have been number of people ruling our country whereas it was one supreme self appointed leader in the enemy side in the North. The leaders in the south had many issues to tackle, but Piripaharan had one mission and it is to defend their Ealam territory by military means. When it comes to elections, people in the south were divided in different political ideologies and their focus was often diverted from the core burning issue of terrorism by those who strategically manipulating the media.

The political front of Ealam seperatism
Once LTTE got hold the full control of North and Eastern provinces in the post Indo-Lanka peace accord era, LTTE had very little effort in military front. Their next main focus was to inroad into politics in South and to convert their military victories into political means. They were ably supported by the international community which was completely misled by pro separatist media campaigns in the Western world.

When the south was burning in 88/89 period due to insurgency by JVP, it was a happy time for the political front of the Ealam to invest in the south. It came with the partnership with international community (selected number of pro separatist nations like UK, Norway and Canada) in the form of INGOs.

The INGO, their media agents and the role of R. Premadasa
President R.Premadasa, being a leader emerged from the common people had good sniff on the back ground activities of LTTE’s political wing and its agents in the South. He directly challenged the post colonial influence by sending then high commissioner for UK, Mr. Gladson back home. Then he ordered full inquiry into the activities of INGOs.

The international political wing of LTTE reacted R. Premadasa by extensively pumping their money into media sector. The result was the surge of vikalpa (alternative) newspapers in the country. One time defeated revolutionists Victor Ivon and Sunanda Deshapriya who had lost their way in the society were selected as key agents and ‘Rawaya’ and ‘Ukthiya’ was busy attacking the R. Premadasa regime. At that time, these so called vikalpa news papers were pretending to be totally in the side of common people and they made image of R. Premadasa as the enemy of the people. Despite their INGO funded media campaigns, R. Premadasa being a tempered politician was too much for them to tackle.

The military and political wings of LTTE always work with a plan to complement each other. It was in this backdrop that LTTE’s military wing took up the terms and assassinated president Premadasa.

Once R. Premadas was assassinated, the political wing took back the precedence in their role and it was their turn to bring a leader who can full fill their aspirations of separatism. Their choice was non other than CBK who had been living in exile with their colonial masters in London for years. The rule of the choice was that inherently opportunistic characters with lack of political leadership are always easier to manipulate with their tone.

While INGO funded Rawaya and Ukthiya was busy promoting mere character CBK, who had not any track record of prior political experience in governing, as queen of peace and whole mark of good governance. On the other side, the military wing cleared the way by killing Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayaka whom LTTE considered as possible threat to the victory of CBK. These two killings not only pave the way for CBK for easy victory, but also it completed the prune of UNP’s leadership and allowing a mere political clown in the name of Ranil Wickramasingha to grab the leadership of UNP. At that time, the people had only to choose one of the lesser evil in the subsequent elections.

The true face of the vikalpa media exposed
Once the political wing of separatists grab the power in the south in the name of CBK, the vikalpa media started showing their true face. They began to implement the next step of their INGO master’s plan and it was selling the separatism in the form of federalism in the south. It was supported within the government by organizing pro separatist campaigns like ‘Sudu Neluma’ and ‘Thawalama’ where Mangala Samaraweera was playing a key role.

Despite large amount of money being pumped in, the papers like ‘Ukthiya’ and ‘Ravaya’ lost their reader base after their pro separatist face is exposed to the general public. Ukthiya news paper was subsequently closed down (after having done their role) and Ravaya is now just keeping the publishing with nominal presence in the society.

The people’s victory in 2006
It is after long time that people got an opportunity to select people’s leader in 2006 and their decision was quite clear and loud. It was a victory against terrorism and separatism. It is amazing to see how things have turned backed in a matter of less than two years. The government clearly identified all the fronts of LTTE terrorism including its political front in the south in the form of INGO funded and directly waged media persons. For the first time, the government started full fledged war against both military and political wings of LTTE.

The armed forces were given full control of tackling the military front of LTTE and they have shown the result by completely liberating the entire Eastern province and seizing the LTTE in limited area in Wanni jungle. It is just a matter of days that LTTE carders start to get suicide themselves in their bunkers itself or surrender because they are under complete seize and there is no supply of arms and ammunitions to them.

Political leadership matters
The military fight against terrorism started not only in the battle field of Mavil Aru, but it was in the mind of the people as well with campaigns to boost the moral of the nation with the theme of ‘api wenuwen api’ (be together for all). The war was once called by then leaders as ‘the miserable war’, but now it has become the people’s victory against fascist terrorism.

On the other hand president Rajapaksa was successful in uniting the divided Sri Lankan nation. The government is now truly people’s government where nearly half of the UNP MP’s are actively playing ministerial portfolios. The government has got the support of one time pro federalist parties like SLSSP and Sri Lanka Communist Party as well as nationalist parties like JHU and MEP. The predominantly Tamil parties like EPDP and part of TELO is with the government. It’s not only Thondaman’s CWC but all other parties which represent up country Tamil community is supporting the government. Even handful of members from SLMC is with the government. The government has managed to keep meaningful dialog with JVP which is popular for its extreme views as well.

The current challenge from Political wing of separatists
We should not expect that once LTTE is completely defeated by military means, the political front will stop their activities. In fact now, LTTE knows that it is no point trying to smuggle arms and ammunition to Wanni jungle because it all ended up in the bed of Bay of Bengal. So they will completely divert their money pump into political wing in the South in the form of INGOs.

Although the Ukthiya news paper is no longer operating after being exposed their separatist face, the people behind those are still in operation. Now they are not directly exposing their rotten faces, but they are still working in more innovative ways behind the scene targeting different segments in the society. Once paper based pro separatist news mongers are now coming in the form of eNews cyber robots. They will again try to tarnish the people’s leadership and boost the image of mere feeble characters eying for grab the power in the south. In the mean time, LTTE’s military wing will always keep their eagle eye looking for possible weakness to get the lives of national leadership.

It is the obligation of the true patriotic people in the country to unite with the political leadership and military leadership to strengthen the fight against both military wing of separatism in the North and political wing and its beneficiaries in the South.

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Sri Lankan Nation, are we ready for the challenge?

20 Jan 2008

As we all expected LTTE terrorists have unleashed the final round of terror in the Sri Lankan society. LTTE is no longer a strong military out fit with own rule, autonomy and territory rather it is now consisted of isolated and frustrated carders without any direction or vision. In the recent past, the LTTE terrorists have lost quite a number of their top ranked leaders ranging from those affiliated to military operations to intelligence. Recently, their Eastern province leader was killed not in the battle field or a terrorist hide out, but in a camp for displaced. This clearly shows the misery and disarray of terrorist in North and East. Just like a flame glitter more just before it is to be put out, isolated LTTE carders have intensified its terrorist activities. Defeated terrorists are no longer capable of fighting with security forces in the battle field. Therefore, now their only mode of operation is coward attack on civilians with hide and running.

Leadership matters
LTTE managed to kill array of UNP leaders including R. Premadasa, Gamini Dissanayaka, Ranjan Wijeyarathna, Lalith Athulathmudali and so many others. This resulted in mere feeble characters to grab the helm of UNP leadership. There was a time that these so called leaders were leading from tail in fear of terrorism. They were too busy distributing sirens and imposing run away mentality in the mind of common people.

The international conspirators were also effective at that time and it was hand picked agent from London in the name of CBK paraded into Sri Lankan politics as queen of peace prosperity. At that time the war was called ‘miserable war’ and of course no one was willing to actively participate in that kind of war.

It is against this backdrop that people of this country took a bold decision to elect Mahinda Rajapaksa as the president while all the local and international evil forces including CBK were against him. The moment we got a genuine leadership, the fight against terrorism got in to the right track. The military was provided with correct political leadership and freedom. For the first time in recent history all the progressive and patriotic forces come to support ‘Mahinda chinthanaya’ which included all the patriotic fractions and individuals from UNP as well (fact: Nearly half of the UNP MP’s are in the government supporting Mahinda Chinthanaya!).

Military has been playing their part to perfection
The armed forces took up the challenge at a time when they had lost their high ranks in intelligent units (betrayed by then political leadership); key camps like Trincomale and Palali were under artillery threats, etc. However, they have succeeded in all fronts with minimum buzz and burden to the common people in South. The entire Eastern province and good part of Wanni jungle is already liberated and LTTE is seized into a small area in Wanni jungle. The SL Navy has proved to be the most successful operational deep blue navy in the world by successfully sinking seven LTTE ships packed with arms and ammunitions. SL air force is consistently pounding LTTE leader’s hideouts and already proved to successful in many occasions. It is just a matter of days that LTTE leader Piripaharan is forced to commit suicide in a deep hole in the Wanni jungle.

LTTE military bunkers vs media bunkers
As Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka recently clearly mentioned, it is the media in the country that was playing the evil role against all the victories against terrorism. The media mafia in Sri Lanka is tightly coupled with INGO’s and comprador political ancestries in the country. They are not running on the agenda of will of the people of this country, but on the agenda of their local and foreign masters. It is time for the people of this country to identify theses culprits by name. LankaEnews site which is controlled under the hood by free media movement (FMM) is doing the terrorist propagation in shameless manner. Just like Piripaharan became the self appointed supreme of LTTE, Sunanda Deshapriya has been the head of FMM from its inception to date. Sunanda Deshapriya is a local entrepreneur of large number of other INGO’s as well.

The multi million worth question to ask from them is how a foreign funded organization ever becomes a free movement. The reality is they are serving their masters who are funding them. When LTTE has been loosing all the ships packed with ammunitions in deep blue waters, they are not going to spend any more money buying ammunition. It is duty of the people and the government to investigate if LTTE money is ended up in the pockets of these so called media gurus who are shamelessly campaigning for terrorists.

When a cowardly act of bombing civilian target happened, the media can either exaggerate the fear psychosis in the society (mission of terrorists) or they can report the same with national interests to keep up the strong will power of the nation to eradicate terrorism. Therefore, the people must be enlightened to identify the pro terrorist media bunkers which are actively operated in the cyberspace, electronic as well as in traditional paper form. The best form of attacking these media bunkers in the south is to reject these media having ulterior motives!

Are we ready?
The war against terrorism is not simply a matter of defeating terrorist in the battle field. The true peace in the country will be established only if the separatist terrorism is effectively defeated in both ideological and political fronts as well. The ideological and political fronts of LTTE are rooted not in bunkers in the North, but in some political parties and foreign funded media institutions in the South. After seen the inevitable military defeat of separatist terrorism, now these pro separatist agents are busy campaigning to sell another myth that defeating the terrorism militarily must be supplemented by extensive devolution of power.

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 birthday Speech, 2007

In other words, they are trying to convert military winning over separatist terrorism in to a passage to political and ideological victory for separatism which is rooted in the problem of Tamil Diaspora.

The Sri Lankan military has been successful in winning the military wing of terrorism. It is time for the people and the politicians to unite and win over ideological and political wing of separatism. This is really a harder guerilla war, because their media and political bunkers are right here firmly mingled with existing political and economic mechanism in the South!

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Grace of nature. A by story of terrorism

18 Jan 2008

The war against terrorism has influenced the Sri Lankan society in many ways. We always talk the bad effects of war. Now we are at the very last stage of winning the war against terrorism and this is good time to contemplate and carry whatever good things that Sri Lankan nation got due to the war. It may be simple things or qualities, but still matter if taken in good faith.

Due to terrorist threat to the Colombo harbor, the government declared the sea near the harbor as a banned zone for intruders including the fishermen. In south of the harbor, fishing has been prohibited even at the sea shore up to Kolpetty railway station. One of a positive effect of this has been the growth of fish in this area. The growth has been so evident that if one observes the sea in naked eyes from Kolpetty railway station to the south end of Gall face area (best seen at just north of the Kolpetty railway station from 6.00 to 10.00 in the morning) one can easily sees different range of fish. This appealing seen of fish, mostly blue colored fish around half a meter of length can be best witnessed in the early morning hours where sun rays beam onto the surface of the sea from East. If you are not fortunate enough to see larger blue fish, you may still see bunch of small fish very frequently.

Psychologists say that watching fish reduce stress and especially good for those who suffering from ailments like high blood pressure etc… We used to have domestic ponds or fishing tanks. However, growing fish in limited spaces like tanks are not at all in line with our Buddhist values of loving kindness.

In Sri Lanka nature is considered as sacred heritage. It's a fact as the world's first Wild Life Centaury was established by King Devanam Piyatissa ( 307 B.C.) honoring the request made by the Arahath Mahinda Thero (the sun of Great King Dharmashoka who introduced Buddhism to Sri Lanka).

The Arahath Mahinda thero advised the King who was on a deer hunt when they meet at Ambastala Forest.

"Dear King ..
The animal who live in this land,
the birds fly in the sky,
and the fish swim in the rivers
have a right to their life like you and me.
As the King, you are not their owner,
but the protector and the ruler"

The King declared the Ambasthala (Currently Mihintale Forest) a wild life sanctuary and ordered his men and countrymen not to kill any animals in the forest any more.

Just like we are proud to be having the first ground sanctuary in the world, why do not we have an aquatic sanctuary right in the heart of Colombo city so that people can enjoy the beauty of the nature and relax? When peace is restored, the government may even promote eco terrorism with small eco friendly boat service similar to those operated in coral garden areas in Hikkaduwa.

When peace is restored and restrictions are lifted, fishermen may come back (from both ground and sea) and ruin the newly developed eco system which will result back with a dead sea. Alternatively, we may reserve at least small area (From Colombo harbor to Bambalapitiya) as an aquatic sanctuary where people can come to the shore and enjoy the lively nature. War is bad and we should win it at all cost, still we may carry some good things as its results.

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Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord and broken promises

16 Jan 2008

In 9 January 1984, couple of students started a peaceful demonstration in Jafna University. However, Piripaharan saw this type of peaceful demonstrations as a threat to the growth of his fascist terrorist organization. LTTE propagandists made use of the university student fast to din into the minds of the Tamil people the futility of non-violent protests. Therefore, he ordered his carders to abduct them and innocent Tamil girl Mathivathani was among them and she ended up in the custody of Piripaharan in a LTTE camp in South India. In Hindu society it is very difficult for a Hindu girl to face the society after being under the custody of a man. Therefore, up to the date she is still living with this terrorist leader as his official wife.

On July 29, 1987, a similar incident occurred. However, this time it is not a personal incident, but happened to be a tragedy of a nation that Piripaharan also played a role. It is none other than the Indo-Lanka peace accord which introduced the 'Provincial Councils' to Sri Lanka. Just like Piripaharan- Mathivathani marriage, this solution was imposed on Sri Lankan society by then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. It was signed under curfew after hundreds of people who protested it peacefully were shot to dead. Provincial councils are still not functional in North or East due to LTTE terror regime, but still people in the South are forced to bear this white elephant with thousands of councilors and ministers.

The leadership matters
J R Jayawardana won the general election in 1977 with more than 4/5 of majority in the parliament. J R had long and continues struggle to get the leadership of his party and at last, he got it in very old stage of his political career. After the election he acted as a dictator. Unleashing of free economy resulted in temporally economic boom in the country. However, this short sighted politician did not for see the growth of separatist terrorism in the North. This was aggravated further by burning of Jaffna library and later, the eruption of 1983 riots which were completely orchestrated by dictatorial UNP regime. The UNP leadership strongly believed in dictatorship and state terror as a critical supportive aid for exploitation which is part of capitalist economy (in raw form). However, the Tamil politicians were able to read this in ethnic point of view to promote separatism and it evolved into separatist terrorism which even the same Tamil politicians were ultimately targeted.

The true leadership of a character is tested in crisis situations and when J R ultimately decided to crush the terrorism it was too much for this old fox. When India came in to the picture, old and weary J R was pushed in to the wall. JR who was adorably named as Yanki Dikky by his political friends found that those Western nations who were allied with him in exploiting the common people of this country are no longer with his side. Just like Mathivathani gave into Piripaharan, the old fox had no option but to accept whatever solution mold by Indian government.

Historical challenge for Rajiv Gandhi
In early 1980s, Sri Lankan economy was reaping its temporary economic boom due to opening the economy. India was committed to more planned and managed national economy and economy was growing steadily. Indian politicians face with the challenge to convince their people to keep with original planned national economy in the light of temporary boost in Sri Lankan open economy. Rajiv Gandhi took the easy approach and decided to support the growing Tamil terrorism in Sri Lanka to destabilize Sri Lankan economy. We all know that Indo-Lanka peace accord came into the surface as a mean to terminate the Wadamaracchi military operation which was advancing successfully, rather than with any genuine intention of resolving separatist terrorism.

Broken promise
Until the accord is signed, LTTE pretended that they are supporting it thereby assuring the political victory towards separate state. Then, Sri Lankan government played its part by establishing the merged Provincial Council for North and Eastern provinces.

However, just like the British colonial rulers failed to implement the agreed conditions of 1915 accord (udarata givisuma), Indian government strategically postponed their obligation of demilitarizing the LTTE. Instead Indian military was involved more in raping of innocent Tamil woman and violating human rights.

Now the pro LTTE Tamil politicians and rejected Sinhala politicians backed by INGO media agents are again trying to stage the second episode of the same drama by pushing India for yet another round.

Current ground reality
Now the political context has completely changed. With prolonged terrorism, Sri Lanka is no longer an economic threat to India. India has weather the economic hard time and now reaping the result of national economy. India is no longer a focusing on sub continent alone, but they are in a stiff competition with China to gain the supremacy in whole Asian region. India need the political stability in the region to prepare for its next leap into becomes a super power. On the other hand they are fully aware that it is not North or East of Sri Lanka, but Tamilnadu in India is the cradle of Tamil nation. It is evident to all that Tamil separate state in North of Sri Lanka will naturally absorbed in to the state of Tamilnadu.
The economic and political context has greatly changed from early 1980s and it is votes and politicians in Tamilnadu that matter to New Delhi government more than LTTE or people of Sri Lanka. On the other hand, India has lost the same leader in return of mediation in 1989. Despite howl of LTTE proxy politicians in North and rejected politicians in the South, this time India will think twice before mediate into his younger brother's affaires. In the same time it is not old and weary J R, but youthful, friendly and diplomatic Mahinda Rajapaksa is governing Sri Lanka.

Personalities play big role in world politics and this is president Mahinda Rajapaksa's turn to prove that he is a true patriotic leader to the nation who is not letting down the victories assured by our armed forces in North and East. The war against LTTE terrorism will be won only after separatism is defeated not only by militarily but also by ideologically and politically. It is responsibility of politicians to hold the winning flag of military operations in the political and international context. It is the obligation of the people to identify the Trojan horses in the south that are campaigning in international community to turn victories against terrorism in the form of international pressure.

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The challenge from Private bus mafia

13 Jan 2008

When Mervin Silva secured the last place in preferential vote list in UPFA from Colombo district, it was none other than Gamunu Wijayarthna , the president of Private Bus Owners Association who secured the same position in the UNP list . Both these characters were rejected by the people of this country; however their influence on society has not yet been fully seized. While Mervin managed to sneak into the parliament in the back doer and continued to threaten the civil society and public institutions using his political power, Gamunu Wijayarthna continued to hold the chair of Private Bus Owners Association and threaten the innocent commuters of the country.

Who is trying to benefit the war?
The private bus owners have yet again threatened the government and indirectly the public on another bus strike. This time they have gone one step further and stated that they will not publish the date of strike in advance. This surprising statement came after they were allowed on large scaled bus fair hike in latter part of last year. The reason given this time is the lower number of commuters due to terrorist threats resulting low income for the industry. There are frequent media reports pointing different people trying to make war for their living. This is clearly an instance where private bus mafia is trying to cash in showing the terrorists threats! Interestingly they have proposed a solution for that and it is to temporarily discontinue fining the private bus drivers for offences.

Terrorism in many faces
This clearly shows that it is not only terrorism based on separatism in North, but Sri Lankan society is covered with many forms of terrorism. While the government is fighting against the LTTE terrorism and trying preserving the law and order of the country, the terrorism of private bus mafia is trying to cash in the insecurity of the country and demanding removing of law imposed on them. Both these culprits are striving for a society devoid of law and order where they can benefit and they are shamelessly trying to depend on each other in their missions.

The terror regime of driver and conductor
Today, it is the rule of driver and conductor that prevail in private busses. They have been successful in ruling a mini terrorism in private busses for long time. They always use abusive and offensive wording to terrorize the commuters thereby pack up heavy loads and idling in bus stands. It is hundreds of commuters vs two mini terrorists in a bus, yet the Sri Lankan society was so much under the terrorism that they have never been able to over come fear psychosis and challenge these mini terrorists collectively.

While we are winning the war against LTTE terrorism in the Wanni jungle the Sri Lankan nation should rally together to fight against all sort of mini terrorism that has been dominated in our society.

It is not so long ago that Mervin Silva got his return for being a threat to the civil society and if not the government, the common people of the country should come forward again to challenge these anti social characters to show their due destination in the history!

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The reality of western super democracy and us

12 Jan 2008

There is a myth spread in Sri Lanka that the western world is having the supremacy in democracy. Whenever these western countries try to influence us in different areas ranging from human rights to freedom of expression they tend to pretend as the role model and of course their NGO local agents is trying to draw the same image in the greed for money. Are those western super powers that preach democracy practicing the same? USA is considered to be the de facto leader of western culture. It is interesting to see how this super power and its people have behaved in the name of democracy in recent past.

Political ancestries
Our media is frequently making mock of political ancestries in eastern culture particularly in the Indian sub continent. Why are they hesitant to point out the fact that it is George Bush ancestry that has been governing united state for over two decades? The world clearly knows the political clownship of George Bush, the current president of USA. He involved in the second invasion of Iraq and the history has proved that it was utterly baseless war operated on wrong information. We all know that George Bush has no political personality and he has made mock of political activities of USA both locally and internationally. Under Bush administration, the American nation has not only lost its glamour and pride, but also it has lost its economic leadership and technical supremacy. How did this bankrupt political character managed to grab the helm of American politics? It is simply because his father happened to be a president of America and Bush (jnr) got the presidential candidature due to influence of his father. The result was not only crippled democracy but a failing nation.

Post recount saga
The vote recount saga of Florida clearly exposed the undies of American politics and it’s super democracy. The vote counting lead to a crisis with rounds of recounting and ultimately both the parties had to go the courts several times to get the final result. These ultimately resulted in a December 12 7-2 United States Supreme Court decision that the Florida Supreme Court's scheme for recounting ballots was unconstitutional, as well as a 5-4 United States Supreme Court decision that ended the Florida recounts and allowed Florida to certify its vote.

Though Gore came in second in the electoral vote, he received 543,816 more individual votes than Bush. Though Al Gore was the more professional and diplomatic candidate in the campaign, it was Bush who immerged as the winner. It clearly showed to the world that American democracy is based on political and monitory power than proficiency or character. Al Gor recently became the joint winner of Nobel price for his outstanding works against environmental pollution while his counter part, a mere political clown named Bush has been governing the USA providing more and more jokes to the world.

From husband to wife
Now, American politics is screening its second stage of family politics. This time it is in the name of Hillary Rodham Clinton who happened to be the wife of former president Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton- Monica Lewinsky drama had been dominated the American politics for years and it was Hillary Clinton who is now cashing in after being in the receiving end at that time. She has managed to convert the petty popularity and power inherited from her husband in to a strong campaign for presidential candidature. The time will decide if America is going to see the second consecutive family politics in next presidential election.

Battle of money
It is now evident that so called supreme democracy of USA is very much based on power of money than the willpower of the people. A critical part of presidential campaign is the ability to collect highest amount of money for the campaign and the media is giving very high publicity and measure strength of each candidate by using the amount of money collected. In US democracy, it is no longer the policies but the money that is competing each other and this clearly shows that when the society is completely invaded by the marketing under wholly capitalist society, the democracy no longer sustains. Even the elections and candidates have become commodities that are handled by various marketing forces and both the candidates and voters have become mere characters.

The local context
It is this same model that western world was trying to implant in our country and they were successful twice with CBK and Ranil Wickramasingha (for short time). CBK was a parachute character to SL politics, but control of media by the power of money made her the powerful executive president of Sri Lanka. The next choice was the Ranil Wickramasingha (whom they thought that even better option than CBK) who happened to be a mere character than a battle hardened politician. It was again manipulation of media that transform this weak character into a prince of peace.

The challenge for Sri Lankans
However the people of this country showed their political maturity in the last presidential election by defeating media inflated mere characters and electing a true born leader came from grass root level of politics. In that sense, the political consciousness of Sri Lankans is way ahead of that of Americans. Regardless of capitalism or socialism, the character and leadership of politicians play big role in success of a country and this requires healthy democracy rooted within the people rather than democracy in the hand of business mafia, foreign funded NGOs and their hired media personals and organizations.

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FAQ on Lanka Rising

Since its humble inception, LankaRising has got considerable reader base and since the articles are frequently syndicate with other news portals there are large number of new readers coming to the site daily. So the FAQ is added for their benefit.

Q. Does LankaRising a news site?
A. LankaRising is not intended to be a news site. There is enough news reporting sites (though most of those news sites present the news after adding their political flavor on it) in the web. This is rather a site which analyzes the life and society in the light of news and current affaires in accordance with our cultural values and historical background.

Q. Does LankaRising hold any political view?
A. LankaRising is not enframed in to any particular view. We believe that, when one look at an issue with a particular view (just like looking through a colored glass), he loose the reality and truth. LankaRising is certainly having a vision of the future of this country. Any political activity in line with that vision is commended and we do not hesitate to criticize activities that are going against the will of the people.

Q. Why does LankaRising often criticize the Sri Lankan media?
A. We strongly believe that the media in Sri Lanka is highly under the influence of wealthy comprador society. INGOs are funding some other private media organizations. There are few private owned media organizations owned by foreigners and they are governed with these foreign owners’ motives rather than in line with the aspirations of the common people of Sri Lanka. We believe that even Free Media Movement (FMM) is not representing the freedom of journalism because they are not funded by journalists of Sri Lanka, but by international governments and allied INGOs. Therefore, even FMM is serving their foreign masters! So there is a strong need to represent common peoples view in the web.

Q. Why does LankaRising select blogspot domain?
A. Blogspot is free and open and also provides a rich feature set. Because the domain is free LankaRising need not depend on funds from any political party or foreign NGOs to recover hosting fees. Since LankaRising is not bearing any cost, it does not governed by marketing forces (supply news for demand). This is what we call free media.

Q. Does LankaRising promote any special culture or philosophy?
A. Yes LankaRising proudly belongs to Sri Lankan culture and naturally vast majority of Sri Lankan culture is nurtured by Buddhism. Therefore it is natural that the analysis is flavored with Buddhist philosophy. This may seen unfamiliar for people who are mostly utilizing news sites governed by NGO funded media organizations, allied with political parties and foreign businessmen. They hold either western catholic views or Indian domination that you have taken for granted. So initially you may find LankaRising a different site. But soon you will find that it is LankaRising that is representing your natural culture.

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Fight against LTTE bomb threats and our social responsibilities

11 Jan 2008

Recent chain of minor and major blasts in the capital city clearly indicates that security in Colombo is vulnerable to attacks. In few months back, there was strict and planned security checking network in placed and the armed forces and the police managed to catch large amount of explosives and vehicles packed with explosives. However, pro terrorist media network and allied NGO rights organizations were able to create an artificial howl against tight security measures.

For them rights of parking of vehicles for shopping, increased traffic due to extra checking, etc were supreme than brutal killings due to bomb blasts. Those who are killed in the bomb blasts are the ordinary people in this country and those dead people can never go to the supreme courts to demand their human rights. In the other hand, the rights of these innocent people have less dollar values for various NGO right agents to organize campaigns! The unfortunate effect was the Supreme Court order on removing permanent check points and orders in allowing parking of vehicles in road way sides.

Media mafia is not in the side of the people
The brave armed forces are engaged in crucial final stage of battle in Wanni jungle. However it is tragedy that foreign funded media mafia in Sri Lanka, having different agenda, was not in line with these victories and possible reactions of defeated terrorists. It is in this back drop that doctors are organizing strikes and private bus mafia threatening for strikes.

Whenever there is a blast, the political wing of LTTE terrorists ably supported by their waged journalists in the south was busy highlighting the deaths and casualties. The media in general has failed to create a constructive discussion on how to defeat the ulterior motives of terrorists and safeguard the society from bomb threats, the only capability of coward and defeated terrorists.

Can we safe guard our society from bomb threats?
LTTE allied segments have spread another myth in the society that bomb threats of terrorism can not be eliminated. This is just like the other broken myths stated before like “LTTE is strong military unit”, “LTTE can not be defeated in North and western provinces” etc.. Since Al-Quida attack on twin towers, they were not able to attack single target within USA and since London bomb blasts few years back, there are no more bomb blasts in Britain. How were they able to secure their society after those attacks?

The simple answer is that it is because of the willpower of those nations to rally around their leaders to fight against terrorism shedding petty political views. The people, media and politicians had their country first and supported the forces to fight against terrorism. They knew that their human rights can be safe guarded only if terrorism is defeated.

We all have a responsibility
Fight against LTTE terrorists in the battle field can be effectively handled by our professional and effective security forces alone with the moral and political support of people. However, when it comes to coward acts of setting bombs in crowded areas, there is much more active role to be played by very individual citizen of the country. The society is us and it is our responsibility to safeguard the society from coward acts of terrorists. The security forces and police are there only to help us.

The society has only a handful of terrorists and their supporters and all others must be ready to be extra vigilant to catch these coward terrorists. It is our duty to vigilant on our neighbors and any suspectable movement or people must be reported to the police.

Whenever we are in public places it is our duty to be extra vigilant on the environment and the persons. If every one obligate to be vigilant on strangers in their immediate vicinity, at least couple of eyes will be always focused on each other in a given time and these coward people will never get a chance to plant bombs in public places.

There are simple things that we can do in this critical period to minimize the fear psychosis in the society. If you are in a home in road way side you can clean the garden near the road so that culprits can not hide claymore bombs. We should minimize bringing unnecessary goods and bags in traveling. People should always keep their belongings in there hand rather than in racks in the trains or buses. This may cause some inconvenience. However, if everyone strict to these simple basics right, it can greatly ease the work of security forces and also effectively minimize the fear psychosis in the society.

Remember, the terrorists do all these bomb blasting to terrorize the society and it is our duty to not to be terrorized and rather proactively work against the terrorists. If we can support each other and win over the situation, it is a matter of another couple of weeks that last bunker in Wanni jungle is demolished and terrorism is eradicated from our mother land for ever.

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Time for People and legislature to unite with forces to fight against terrorism

8 Jan 2008

Sri Lankan legislature lost two of its law makers within one week. Firstly, it was UNP Colombo district parliamentarian T. Maheshwaran who was brutally killed in a Hindu temple. It was followed by road way side claymore explosion killing D.M. Dassanayaka who was the minister of nation building. This clearly shows that now Sri Lankan legislature is severely under threat of terrorism.

In the first term, Mr. Maheshwaran was elected to parliament from Jafna district under UNP. However, Maheshwaran himself happened to be a victim of so called ‘cease fire’ agreement signed between UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe and LTTE terrorist leader Piripaharan. As provisioned by the agreement, LTTE terrorists were allowed to infiltrate into liberated Jafna peninsula and LTTE fascist carders made sure that no other democratic parties other than LTTE’s proxy front TNA is allowed to contest in the Jafna district in subsequent elections. This resulted in Mr. Maheshwaran to left his home town and landed in Colombo to contest for the parliament in the election. Since he went against the order of LTTE, he was targeted by LTTE pistol gang, but he narrowly escaped despite severe injuries.

Mr. Maheswaran was an effective businessman as well and he owned merchant ships which were used to transport goods to the Jafna peninsula. In the past, LTTE was continuously putting pressure on government to jeopardize the food supply to Jafna peninsula thereby creating a crisis situation which can be manipulated by their international political agents for mediation. Therefore, Mr. Maheshwarn not only as a politician, but also as a businessman was going against the will of LTTE terrorism. Mr. Maheshwarn had no second chance in the New Year day and he was brutally killed by an ethnically Tamil gun man from Jafna.

As usual, despite historical facts and politico-business background, spineless UNP was too busy criticizing the government for loosening the security of MP, deliberately diverting the attention from the real threat.

Certainly, government can not get their hand off from the accusation of loosening the security of selected number of MPs who voted against the budget. It is obligation of the government to protect all the people regardless of their political views. The government’s decision was certainly not based on ethnicity but on petty political view because slashing of security was targeted across Sinhala and Muslim MPs as well. Mr. Maheshwaran was very critical of the government lately and we should understand the behavior of Tamil MP’s in the opposition in broader prospective. They are directly exposed to the terrorism which is widely spread in the Tamil community and they had to balance the pressure exerted on them by LTTE fascism. Therefore, government should react to criticisms of Tamil MPs in matured manner considering all the ground realities.

Mr. Maheswaran was requesting more security from the government and he would have good reason to request security. Therefore, government should have acted more responsible manner rather than acting like a bunch of Montessori students when taking decisions regarding security of personals especially at this critical juncture of war against terrorism.

The second target for terrorist happened to be government’s minister Mr. D. M. Dassanayaka and this clearly shows that LTTE has decided to unleash the terror across the legislature. In the past, when they were powerful after honey moon season of cease fire, they were able to target military leadership. Killing of military high rank Parami Kulathunga was the starting point followed by foiled suicide bomb attack on Major General Sarath Fonseka. However, the military leadership of Sri Lanka managed to defeat the LTTE threat and since then military has liberated the whole Eastern province and now military is targeting the high rankings of LTTE terrorist leadership. Now, LTTE is no longer capable of facing the strong military leadership of Sri Lankan forces.

Now, defeated terrorists have diverted their focus from targeting military leadership to political leadership. Terrorists know that success of military operation of Sri Lankan forces was strongly backed by political leadership of the country. Therefore, LTTE is trying to TERRORISE the political leadership and members of the parliament to halt the final operations in the Wanni Jungle. Now it is the turn of the political leadership to weather the pressure by terrorists and support the forces to complete the war in winning note and sweep away terrorism for ever rather than give in to terror and come up with peace talks and futile solutions which is going to jeopardize the moral of security forces.

As the Sri Lankan nation we should be able to keep aside petty political motives and unite to face the challenge and eradicate terrorism. This is the time for citizens, politicians and the military to unite and face the challenge of fascist terrorist which is at its very last dying stage.

Related Posts:
- The responsibility of people at the eleventh hour of LTTE terrorism (Nov 28, 2007)
- Over come fear psychosis, the need of the hour (Dec 07, 2007)

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The effect of colonialism in Sri Lankan culture and politics

6 Jan 2008

The man is a cultural animal and culture and man has mutual influence for both. However, the western colonial invasions influenced this balance and in Sri Lanka, we are still seeing the post colonial effect of artificially created cultural segments and their desire to retain power against the will of the common people.

The man required to change the environment in order satisfy his desires. In Indo-Aryan culture, people never became slave of their desires and therefore they respected the nature and never tried to over run it. In the contrary, the western people gradually became slaved on their desires and they wanted to overrun the nature. They even went on to change their religions to adapt this new philosophy.

The development of technology became a meant to conquer the nature, but it never addressed the problem of full filling unlimited desires of western world. After all the hustle and bustle of leap in technology and so called development, is western society a happy one? If they are truly developed, why are they still looking to intervene with politics of their past colonies?

The value systems and culture
Each person belongs to a culture and all his behavior and thinking is partially conditioned by the culture that one belongs. Someone may see the Indo-Aryan culture as one lacking material development, but equally one has to admire the fact that it is a culture with great development in art, literature, music, philosophy and religion.

The ethics of a culture is the commonly accepted values in the society. The people with those values are highly regarded in the society and they become the role models for others in the society.

The different cultures have different values or ethics, but some of them are common, but in different flavors. For example lying in general is considered bad in almost all the societies. While all kind of killings are considered bad in traditional eastern (Indo-Aryan) society, Catholic west and Islamic culture has given superiority to man and they generally accept killing of other animals for consumption. Adultery is generally considered bad in all societies and still the limit of it varies in different cultures.

These lack of restrictions of values or ethics are identified by some people as meant for development. One may argue that those who consume meat may be physically stronger than vegetarian society and those who are less restrained in lying will be better off in trades and commerce. Equally we can see that lack of restrictions may lead to complete breakdown of development and law and order as well.

We can clearly see that basis for most of the ethics or values in western culture is merely to safeguard the society from violence and preserve law and order where as the system in the East is strongly based on philosophical ideology of developing spirituality of individuals.

Globalization is a buzz word that is used to mean that the world is appearing smaller and smaller due to development of technology. In the past, different cultures enjoyed considerable independence. Ancient travelers like Fa Hian and Mako Polo had visited and reported on different cultures, but never involved in influencing other communities. The people who read their reports may have absorbed or adapted some of the features of foreign cultures in voluntary manner. If the mixing of cultures occurs in liberal manner it always mutually benefit by nourishing each other societies.

The affect of Colonialism
However, the intermingling of cultures does not always occur in free and open manner. Under colonial rule, the invaders impose their cultural and religious influence by force. On the other hand, part of the colonized people tends to believe that culture of the invaders is superior to their own. Those people reject their own genuine values and imitate external features of the foreign culture. There are other segments that embrace new culture of rulers to relieve the pressure on them by the native culture. While the native low cast segments embrace foreign culture as defensive mechanism to relive from a negative feature of existing society, the conversion of fishing community can be viewed as an effect of adapting difference in value systems in different cultures. Regardless of the different reasons, the result is a society with people who does not belong to either of the cultures.

Origin of Compradors
There was another segment of people who join hand with the invaders to get petty favoritism and benefits. They embraced all the external values of the colonial rulers to satisfy them and their masters were also looking for these people as local agents to ease governing their colonies. In most of the cases, they were the privileged segment of old culture striving to retain their power even under new rule.

Independence and post colonialism
When the colonial rulers left the country , they made sure that their power is transferred to these compradors who are the privileged class in the society. The colonial masters continue to manipulate these local agents and get the benefits even after they officially hand off their colonies after extracting all the wealth and nourish of the soil.

Freedom struggle Vs Transfer of powers
While Indian people had prolonged struggle for independence mingled with both violence and non-violence, it was more sort of smooth transfer of power by continues constitutional changes that lead to independence in Sri Lanka. While this lead to less violence and blood shed, this mode of independence guaranteed that the power of colonial rulers are smoothly transferred into the hands of their local agents or compradors. This resulted in ever lasting mismatch of cultures of the common people and the local rulers. While the people swiftly got back to their original culture, the local rulers were still having their roots with their colonial masters and not with the common people.

Beyond the boundaries of Political parties
It is characters like Don Juan Dharmapala and Dona Catherina that represent influence of colonialism in its inception. But we should equally remember that it is not a co incidents of history that First prime minister of Sri Lanka was Don Steven Senanayaka, the father of former prime minister SWRD Bandaranayaka happened to be Don Solaman Dias Bandaranayaka, and it was Don Nandasiri Vijeweera who became the first revolutionist in Sri Lankan history.

Regardless of color or party, the post colonial politics is still highly under the influence of few colonial dynasties. It is in the same backdrop that we should analyze the sudden arrival of Chandrika Kumarathunga into Sri Lankan politics and her live in exile with colonial masters after full filling her mission. The west centric behavior of Ranil Wickramasingha, who is the nephew of Junious Richerd Jayawardana, is no strange to those who have gone through the annals of colonial history of Sri Lankan.

Very few of them have tried to rectify inherent sins committed by their ancestors, but by and large they have continued serving their ancestral masters than Sri Lankan nation. That is why leaders like R Premadasa and Mahinda Rajapaksa who immerge from the common people find enormous opposition from the media and political power base of the comprador society and allied INGO agents. It is part of continues struggle due to differences in cultures represented by the common people Vs the privileged sectors of the society.

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