Vikalpa has launched a new micro-site on Twitter with short reports generated by its citizen journalist network in the Eastern Province on election related violence and malpractices. Please visit our Eastern Elections 2008 site for the latest updates, that are also featured on Vikalpa (see column in the middle).

This is the first time in Sri Lanka that reports via SMS from citizens at the grassroots are being used to provide perspectives from the Eastern Province in the lead up to and on the day of the elections (10th May 2008).

While we cannot check the veracity of each SMS we receive in a timely manner, we hope and expect that citizens themselves will actively engage with reports posted on our micro-site and alert us with clarifications, updates and alternative perspectives of their own.

You can get RSS alerts of our reports and even sign up wih Twitter for free and get updates on your mobile, wherever you are in the world.

Please send in your election monitoring reports via SMS to Vikalpa at 0777312079.

Vikalpa, Sri Lanka’s only citizen journalism initiative working primarily in Sinhala and Tamil, is pleased to announce the official launch of the Vikalpa YouTube video channel.

Our YouTube channel complements the text on this website and currently features over 50 short videos on human rights, peace, war, media freedom, gender and politics in Sri Lanka.

Videos on the Vikalpa YouTube channel have already generated hundreds of views, with a few generating views in the thousands. For example, a video (in Sinhala) on a human rights activist’s trip to and experiences in the embattled Jaffna peninsula in the North of Sri Lanka, viewed over 4,000 times, propelled the channel into #82 of the top 100 list of Director’s Channels on YouTube in the 4th week of December 2007.

Watch the video in Sinhala here and in English here.

Please see the full selection of videos here.

Download a flyer with more details on Vikalpa here.

Vikalpa captured scenes from the assassinated UNP MP T. Maheswaran’s funeral held In Colombo on 3rd January 2008.

I read, with great pain of mind, Ruki’s article on “Jaffna: Tears, Blood and Terror” posted on ‘Groundviews” on December 11, 2007. The comments on the article were no less moving. I agree with all that has been said.

It may appear ludicrous for someone to agree with all views that are diagonally opposite to one another ex facie. Let me explain.

The explanation may be acceptable to all or it may be detested by all. Nevertheless I must say what I have to say for I believe that it is only by putting our hearts and minds together, that our calamitous ethnic conflict can be laid to rest some day.

My basic assumption is that each view is justified in relation to the angle from which it is taken. The curse is that there is a multiplicity of angles involved in the conflict.

The humiliation and the deprivations suffered by the Tamils and referred to by Ruki are real and pathetic. Tamils have done nothing on their part to deserve such treatment. They may have had better opportunities before Independence but that was not their fault. It was a part of the ‘divide and rule policy’ of the imperialists. In my experience, Tamils have always been hard-working, hospitable, amicable and peace-loving, as a people. The War which is the root-cause of their suffering is not their creature.

The LTTE is generally blamed for starting the war but who pushed them into it? Decades of negotiations between leaders of both sides only led to the holocaust of 1983. The war is a product of desperation born of the lethargy, short-sightedness and cowardice on the part of all those who were in power after Independence. In any case, war has at the least, given a sense of urgency to the search for a solution to the ethnic conflict and some measure of confidence to the Tamils who were exposed to periodic ‘purges’.

The Army has not marched into the North on their own. The war is not their creation either and they have no private axe to grind as evidenced by the words of the soldier quoted in Ruki: “we hope peace can come and we can go back and stay in our own lands without occupying other people’s lands”

Soldiers are members of a paid force exposing themselves to danger on the orders of the Government in power. Placed in such an unenviable position they have to take certain precautions to protect themselves and execute their assignment. Unfortunately, innocent Tamils have to bear the brunt of such precautions.

The South itself is not immune to danger. Murderous explosions cause death and mayhem there to the Sinhalese, personally ‘guiltless of (their) country’s blood.’ Memories of discriminations suffered under foreign rule haunt the Sinhala majority. They are obsessed by the paranoia of losing the clout of their numbers in a constitutionally balanced society.

Such fears find fertile ground in our economy which is dragging its feet. The cake is too small to go round and all stake-holders jealously guard their share against the others. Youth, on both sides of the divide, are driven by a sense of despair and disillusionment.

The ground is ripe for collision and conflict unless the economy expands commensurately and evenly. The escalating mutual distrust between the communities, partly due to the absence of a common medium of communication, exacerbates the conflict further.

In this scenario, no stake-holder is to blame. All of them are cog-wheels in an illusory machine created by Government, or the lack of it. The movement of each wheel is determined by the direction of other wheels in a system gone haywire. No wheel has the freedom to move independently of the others.

The death of Thamil Chelvam is as lamentable as the demise of Major General Parami Kulatunga. They were both precious sons of the soil, who sacrificed their lives in their commitment to causes imposed on them by a society gone berserk. The blame for all this should really fall on the system that makes the wheels move in a negative direction into destruction and extinction.

The solution lies in working out a just and balanced system of power-sharing. Then only will the cog-wheels move together positively. But when will that be? For three generations, there have been ‘words, words and words’ but no resolution of the conflict in sight.

Round-Table Conferences, All-Party Representative Committees, Expert Panels are all too familiar to us. They are only a means of dragging the issue into confusion till the cows come home, reminding one of the proverbial native physician who called for seven packets of a non-existent oil to cure a malady that he could not diagnose. A solution is promised ‘tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow’ but the day never comes.

The day cannot come in a country whose leaders do not have the guts to control their men – leaders who would stake the future of the land for one more day in power. The only solution appears to be enlightening the electorate at least at this late stage, on how to elect their leaders.

I concluded my article in the “Daily Mirror”, on “Let Us Realize the Kannangara Dream”, with the words:

‘the challenge will be to evolve a ‘Katikavata’ on National Goals and set up machinery to regularly review progress, proclaim levels of performance and whip up public enthusiasm, so that the People can make informed decisions on those whom they choose to usher in a ‘just, contented and vibrantly progressive society.’

It is heartening to note that a campaign has been started on these lines by collecting signatures on a pledge on whom to vote for, hereafter. As it is, the movement is limited to the elite, with the result that its impact on the next general election, if any, would be marginal. It is only by carrying this message forcefully down to the ground level, that we can dream of a future whose leaders would have the breadth if vision, the valour of mind and the strength of character, to usher in an era of justice, peace and development.

Somapala Gunadheera

What would be the stand likely to be taken by our Leader of the Opposition Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe in the event of a military putsch by the Army Commander Sarath Fonseka?

Political system was utterly corrupt, Sarath Fonseka would argue. Politicians had robbed the country, another stock argument in the justification of any military junta in the world. Furthermore, he would insist that there is no national problem as such but a problem of terrorism, which can only be defeated by military means, hence the current discourse on a political solution conveniently discarded.

Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth when Perves Musharraf, then the Army Commander of Pakistan deposed the popularly elected Navas Sherrif in 1999 on charges of corruption. Nevertheless, suspension was withdrawn five years later, on the strength of an assurance given by Pakistan to adhere to strict norms of the 53-member organization.

Last year, Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth on account of a military coup in that country. When Zimbabwe, where a long-standing autocracy perpetuated by their much-detested Prime Minister Robert Mugabe rigged the elections and grabbed the power for another term, Commonwealth resorted to the suspension of its membership from the Group. On none of these occasions has Sri Lanka ever raised any voice of dissent.

Last week when the Ministerial Committee of the Commonwealth held in Uganda suspended Pakistan for its failure to meet a deadline in lifting the state of emergency and restoring democracy, our Minister of Foreign Affaires, Rohitha Bogollagama who took part in the ministerial deliberations, assented. Hot on the heels of this sanction, interpreted as a faux pas by our government authorities, an emergency cabinet meeting convened to deliberate the issue made a special statement promptly retracting the stance taken earlier, and expressed Sri Lankan solidarity with the government of Musharraf. Meanwhile, our Opposition labeled Bogollagama as a traitor to the nation and demanded his immediate resignation.

We can understand Rajapakse government’s furious rejection of any sanction against Musharraf. At the moment, Pakistan is the friendliest country of Sri Lanka, whose supply line of military wherewithal is crucial in Sri Lanka’s raging war against the LTTE. So, for a government whose very survival depends solely on a much-anticipated military victory over the LTTE, cannot afford to lose a priceless friend, though a despicable dictatorship detested by its own people, like Pakistan.

But, how can our Opposition which is diametrically opposed to Rajapakse’s war mentality, and allege that the present war carried out by the Rajapakse government is nothing but a ruse to justify its anti-democratic trends and human rights violations, claim to be in favor of a ruler like Musharraf? How in their thinking, can Bogollagama’s acquiescence in sanctioning an autocrat be labeled as “treacherous” to the nation?

Our Opposition has no right to support Pakistan just because it happens to be the military supplier in our war efforts. For, they stand in principle for a political solution eschewing military options as non-viable. On the other hand, our Opposition portrays government’s war campaign as inefficient and full of corruption in acquiring military equipments; Mig 27 aircraft deal being one in the list of serious allegations of corruption. Mushrraf’s adventure in detaining Pakistani Chief Justice, civil activists, lawyers, academics- in short, political enemies of all hues- and declaring a state of emergency and refusing to renounce his commanding position in the Army (yesterday he relinquished it under severe international pressure) are being explained away in the name of combating terrorism. Human rights violations, abductions, killings and media suppression in Sri Lanka are also justified in the same manner under the banner “rescuing our motherland from the clutches of terrorism”.

Despite those similarities between the two countries, it should be stated in fairness to the Rajapakse government that Sri lanka is not yet a Pakistan. But, at the same time we should not overlook the probability of reaching that point at any moment unless we change our misleading track right in time.

In this backdrop, what our Opposition should have taken into consideration was not whether the goodwill of a friendly country -just because it was helping us in our military campaign- would be tarnished, but whether that country was respecting the accepted norms of the international community.

Already, 22 countries have suspended their trade transactions with Pakistan. Even US President George W Bush, who up to now steadfastly defended and sustained the Pakistani dictator in the name of his unwavering service in combating terrorism has stated in no uncertain terms that Musharraf should step down from his military throne and restore democratic rule in Pakistan.

Reason? Even the notorious “War On Terrorism” campaign by George W Bush does not need uncomfortable dictatorships anymore as buddies. Democratic governments can be used just as efficiently for the same purpose, which means Benazir Bhuto or Navaz Sherrif can be more legitimately called upon to service for the purpose of combating terrorism.

Some time back we were so rigidly moralistic in our foreign policy matters that we didn’t hesitate to punish all the cricketers who participated, without heeding a government ban, in a cricket match with the national team of apartheid South Africa. Until 1977 we had no diplomatic relations with Israel, in the belief that Israel was carrying out an aggressive policy against Palestinian people. In spite of the fact that the ideological divide between the two super powers at the time may have had some bearing on these foreign policy dimensions, some common sense of ethical norms also prevailed.

But present Sri Lankan foreign policy does not seem to be entertaining such lofty principles any more. It is rather some utilitarian attitude that is paramount in taking ad hoc decisions. While standing by democratic governance nationally, we can be at ease with despicable despots at international level. While professing to be championing the cause of law and order situation in society we can mobilize the support of underworld kingpins like Gonawala Sunil or Baddagana Sanjeeva to solidify that endeavor. (Both of them have sacrificed their lives for the country!)

For the last 25 years, Pakistan has been giving military aid to Sri Lanka. During that period, Pakistan has seen not only dictators but also democratic leaders in power. Just like the present dictator Musharraf, democratic leaders like Benazir Bhuto and Navas Sherrief too have come to the prompt aid of our government when requested. So, even if we look at the matter from the militaristic point of view of President Rajapakse, there is no reason to prop up Musharraf at the expense of Benazir Bhuto or Navas Sherrief.

Dear Leader of the Opposition, you who profess to be aiming at an alternative political culture in Sri Lanka should have defended not that dictator Musharraf but our Foreign Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama, who even by error had taken a correct stand on Pakistan. Just because he was once a traitor to your party should not have absolved a Musharraf who is a traitor to 160 million people, from his undemocratic sins!

Gamini Viyangoda
gviyangoda@hotmail.fr