By Victor Ivan The political outlook of our country has not kept pace with the unprecedented changes that have swept across the modern world today. It still stagnates at an unprogressive level where the ideological backwardness of politicians reigns supreme. Although, Prabakaran had been removed from the political scene of the country, the various schools [...]
“A season of brutal hypocrisy…” Anatole France (Monsieur Bergeret in Paris) By Tisaranee Gunasekara The draconian land-grabbing Bill is back. The resurrected Bill empowers the regime to acquire any piece of land, anywhere, by the simple expedient of declaring it of economic, social, historical or environmental import or as a sacred area. The first attempt [...]
“Buying the army off tends to be a good insurance policy for would-be dictators”. Christian Caryl (Foreign Policy – 24.1.2012) By Tisaranee Gunasekara Some walls should never be built; some should never be breached. Many of Sri Lanka’s most devastating ills emanated from our habit of building unnecessary walls, and demolishing necessary ones. Our school-system, [...]
False paths, credulously followed… – Gunter Grass (Eulogy on Christa Wolf) By Tisaranee Gunasekara Good warriors often make bad leaders. Those who are good at winning wars are not necessarily good at governance — “with their serial signature fiascos…” The AL results imbroglio is, and seems destined to remain, unresolved. That fiasco has two components [...]
“A historic victory can wreak as much havoc as a historic defeat” Tony Judt (Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten 20th Century) By Tisaranee Gunasekara Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has spoken: the dead Tiger might arise. If the Tiger does rise from the ashes of an annihilating defeat, a lion-share of the credit for that near-miraculous resurrection would [...]
By Tisaranee Gunasekara “Nothing is closer to the law of the jungle than a system of distorted laws and procedures” Haaretz Editorial (2.1.2012) President Rajapaksa won the Eelam War, with the help of countless others (including the imprisoned Gen. Fonseka). In fairytales, the hero who saves a country from some deadly peril is rewarded with [...]
“…by clever and persevering use of propaganda, even heaven can be represented as hell to the people, and conversely the most wretched life as paradise”. Hitler (Mein Kampf) By Tisaranee Gunasekara Impunity is illimitable. If the law was allowed to take its normal course after the Kolonnawa mini-war, the Christmas Eve murder of a [...]
By Tisaranee Gunasekara “… From the very beginning there was a very clear military plan and in parallel…a plan for humanitarian assistance” Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (Testimony before the LLRC) “….the Commission is satisfied that the military strategy that was adopted…was one that was carefully conceived, in which the protection of the civilian population was given the [...]
By Tisaranee Gunasekara “….an amoral clique of corrupt lawbreakers who are deaf both to their citizens and to their enemies”. Avraham Burg (International Herald Tribune – 6.9.2003) The ‘plastic crates saga’ is a quintessentially Rajapaksa tale. Arbitrariness is a hallmark of the ‘Johnston Law’, decreeing plastic crates mandatory in transporting vegetables and fruits. Amidst the [...]
By Tisaranee Gunasekara Hitler swallowed the boundless adulation. He became the foremost believer in his own Führer cult” Ian Kershaw (Hitler: 1889-1936: Hubris) “Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” lamented Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth. Modern rulers know better. They hire expensive public relations firms [...]
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