Category: Politics and Diplomacy
Political and money power influenced the election’s outcome
By Dulakshi Mohotti “Fair is foul, and foul is fair. / Hover through the fog and filthy air” (Shakespeare, 1.1.12-13). In a small country like Sri Lanka where human resources are more...
The Current Political Stance and the Need to Achieve Accountability
Laxmanan Sanjeev With the convening of the new parliament on 20th August in Sri Lanka following a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections that took place on 5th August, there lingers a cloud...
Mullivaikkal: The Enduring Will to Freedom of the Tamil People
Oyatha Alaikal Mullivaikkal. There are many words pertaining to the Tamil Eelam independence struggle that have meanings far beyond their functional ones. Mullivaikkal is among the foremost of these....
‘Yahapalanaya’ has passed its shelf life
Veeragathy Thanabalasingham is the Consultant Editor of Express Newspapers Ltd President Maithripala Sirisena in his speeches at two separate occasions early this week made two politically...
Revisiting the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord: Stirring up old resentments and hope
Veeragathy Thanabalasingham is the Consultant Editor of Express Newspapers Ltd The much-maligned Indo-Lanka Peace Accord of 1987 is back in public focus, courtesy T. Ramakrishnan’s book Or...
Validity of the Indo-Lanka Accord for Tamils Political Will
Dr.C.S.Jamunanantha Indo-Lanka Accord was made by the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, His Excellency Mr.J.R.Jayawardene, and the Prime Minister of the Republic of India,...
Criminalizing politics and politicizing crime
Veeragathy Thanabalasingham is the Consultant Editor of Express Newspapers Ltd Each time a horrific crime hits the headlines, ministers and police top brass make solemn avowals that stringent...
Sri Lanka: The human rights crisis in the Tamil North and East – An appeal for international intervention
Brian Senewiratne, MD, FRCP,FRACP, Consultant Physician, Brisbane, Australia I am a Sinhalese from the majority community in Sri Lanka. I have campaigned for the past 70 years for the Tamil people...
Partners, Not Beggars: A Strategic Proposal for Lobbying Security Council Members
Lorenzo Fiorito and Sowjeya Joseph On February 16, the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) announced that it would initiate a grassroots signature campaign. The petition first demands that the UN...
Forsaking the teachings of the Buddha: Sri Lanka is destined to have attacks against minority communities on repeat cycle as long as temple politics remain
Veeragathy Thanabalasingham is the Consultant Editor of Express Newspapers Ltd Whenever violence is unleashed on ethnic minority communities, political leaders from South almost by rote, hold a...
Genocide and Self-Determination of Eelam Tamils under international law
Speech delivered by Lorenzo Fiorito at the Conference titled “Seventy Years of Oppression of Eelam Tamils by Sri Lanka” on February 5, 2018, at the Hotel Nazionale Rome in Italy. It’s...
JR’s dubious legacy Chained to the wheels of an executive presidency
Veeragathy Thanabalasingham is the Consultant Editor of Express Newspapers Ltd In what was surely a coincidence, last Sunday (4) turned out to be a day of anniversary milestones, with the...
Will the Vedukkunaarimalai be safeguarded from Buddhist extremist?
This hill is located in the Palamodai area in Olumadu of Vavuniya North. The area people is calling this hill which at the centre of thick forest my the name, “ Vedukkunaarimalai”. It is said...
Sampanthan on a fools errand
Veeragathy Thanabalasingham is the Consultant Editor of Express Newspapers Ltd With the fissures between the UNP and SLFP widening daily, the likelihood of the unity government remaining intact...
Is the JVP really ready to embrace change?
Veeragathy Thanabalasingham is the Consultant Editor of Express Newspapers Ltd Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) propaganda Secretary Vijitha Herath’s recent comments (in an English Daily) on...
The games politicians play: In preparing for the local government elections
Veeragathy Thanabalasingham is the Consultant Editor of Express Newspapers Ltd Political parties are busy filing nominations to contest local government elections scheduled for early 2018. As...
Impotent leadership and uneasy co-habitation: Can the two main political parties withstand the problems arising from within and outside and continue to work together?
Veeragathy Thanabalasingham is the Consultant Editor of Express Newspapers Ltd Two years and three months after the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) formed the...
Rajapaksa’s comeback gambit: Foiling the constitution making process
Veeragathy Thanabalasingham is the Consultant Editor of Express Newspapers Ltd Leader of the Opposition and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R. Sampanthan, participating in the final debate of...
The federal solution Leonard Woolf suggested
By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham The Government Agent in Hambantota for a number of years proposed a federal system on the Swiss model for Sri Lanka the 1930s As the political discussion and debate on...
At Rajapaksa’s bidding: The Maha Sangha’s sudden and strident opposition to constitutional reforms explained
By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham is the Consultant Editor of Express Newspapers Ltd The main sects of Sri Lanka’s Maha Sangha have once again demonstrated their strident opposition to...
“Pirabaharanism”- A preface before getting to understand its nuances
Parani Krishnarajani The soon to be released book “Velupillai Pirabaharan: Being and Nothingness (May 18 – Before and After) by Parani Krishnarajani, by a well-known political activists in...
In the grips of absolute power: Why a consensus of key political parties on abolishing the executive presidency remains elusive
Veeragathy Thanabalasingham is the Consultant Editor of Express Newspapers Ltd It was interesting to note the peculiar reason adduced by former president Mahinda Rajapkasa to his decision to hold...
Potential New Directions for Tamil Diplomacy within the International System
By Sowjeya Joseph and Lorenzo Fiorito The international criminal legal system will not bring justice to Tamils. Other avenues for enforcing human-rights decisions should be explored. On August 29,...
Trouble Tamil’s Water – The Scientific understanding for Palk Bay fishing
Dr.C.S. Jamunanantha ( SMO, Teaching Hospital, Jaffna) Poaching in Sri Lankan waters by Indian fishermen is being observed. There are more than Five thousand fishermen have been arrested and...
The Violent Death of Two Tamil Students in Jaffna: Accident; Isolated Incident; or Symptoms of Systemic Violation?
By Surendra Ajit Rupasinghe As usual, there are conflicting presentations and interpretations being made in relation to the recent incident where two Tamil students riding on a motorbike had died in...
Sri Lanka: Tamils in the North-East protest at last
Brian Senewiratne MA (Cantab),MBBChir (Cantab), MBBS Hons (Lond) MD(Lond), FRCP, FRACP Brisbane, Australia On the 24th September 2016, there was a massive protest in Jaffna, in the Tamil North, where...
EU Referendum: The Changes to your Finances
Subash Shangary (Managing Director, Berkeley Private Wealth, High Net Worth Wealth Management, Email: subash.shangary@berkeleypw.com) There will be an immediate impact on some but not all of our...
May 18, 2009. 7+ years
Raj Subramaniam ( Markham Ontario, iniyaval@gmail.com) Seven years have passed since the Tamil community in Sri Lanka lost everything in their fight to unchain 500 years of slavery under the...
‘Kumuthiny Murders’ by merciless Sanguinary ogres: 31st Anniversary Today
It was the sunny morning of 1987 May 15th. Kumuthiny started its fateful journey from Neduntheevu an islet off Jaffna. 64 people including a 7 months old baby to a 74 years old man commenced their...
The Current Political Expectation of Tamils in Sri Lanka
Dr.C.S.Jamunanantha We should need a strategic road map to political solution. The efficiency of third party intervention in the conflict resolution in diplomatic, military and economic should be...
The Saviour
Indhiraa Tamils in Sri Lanka are having important conversations every day, in person and through social media and the blogosphere. In some instances, the impact is swift. For example, on 25th...
Eelam Liberation Struggle : Sathiyaseelan Recalls- 10
I have written in my last episode about myself going to India from Valveddithurai and after that, the 3 members of the Students’ Federation , Thavarajah (current Leader of the Opposition,...
Eelam Liberation Struggle : Sathiyaseelan Recalls: 09
In the last episode I have written that I went to Valveddithuri and then when to India by an illegal boat to escape from the police who had intensified the search for me. In reality, I had two...
Will any action be taken, for the accusation of fisher folks of Manner?
The fisher folks at Manner have felt sad, that the Sri Lankan navy has been greatly supportive for the unlawful catching of fish at manner for the Sinhalese fisher-folks. They further expressed their...
Moves against Wigneswaran
Illaiyathambi Thambiah D.B.S Jeyaraj of the Daily Mirror has mentioned in his article saying that P.K Balachandran had mentioned in his article of the Indian Express, the affluent USA and...
Will Vankalai Village be protected from the sea erosion in Mannar?
People express grief that Sea erosion is gobbling up land in the Village of Vankalai in the Mannar-Nanattan Pradeshiya sabai area. Vankalai is a village with marine resources in Mannar District...
Eelam Liberation Struggle : Sathiyaseelan Recalls: 08
In my last episode I have detailed about myself going to Kandy because of being searched by the police in connection with attempted murder of Thuraiappah , going from there to Colombo, staying there...
31years have passed after Massacre, But Othiyamalai Village still in risky situation- A Spot Report
By K.Vasu Although, however much we talk about the war being over and about Good Governance and National Government, in reality the reconciliation had not been reached and a situation still...
Good Governance Government targeting the vote bank of Tamils in Northern Province: Staged in Mannar
Mannnar Correspondent Good Governance Government is extending its diplomatic moves targeting the vote bank of Tamils in Northern Province. As a part of this covert plans are being undertaken in...
Poor mother waiting with tears for her son to come home on General Amnesty on November 7
By: K.Vasu Tamil Political prisioners (TPPs) who were detained for long time without any inquiries even after the end of war staged a fast unto death demanding to release them under General Amnesty....
Eelam Liberation Struggle : Sathiyaseelan Recalls: 07
Due to unavoidable circumstances, I am writing this episode after a long lapse and I apologize for the delay. In the last episode, I described about Sivakumaran and myself placing a bomb in the car...
Is Mulliyawalai Turning into another Wilpathu ?
Tamil Diplomat Vanni Correspondent There is a tension prevailing in Mulliyawalai which is identified as the cultural centre of vanni. “ our area is also becoming another Wilpathu. Nobody is...
Vinnangampiddy village about to be plundered: People’s representatives who do not care about border Villages
A Direct Report by K.Vasu While the war was fought and after the end of the war, several Tamil Villages in the North and East, which are the traditional homelands of the Tamils, were acquired by the...
Resolution of the Chief Minister and the intrigue to paralyze the Northern Provincial Council
Sathurvethi The Northern Provincial Council and its Chief Minister, stand reflecting again, the thinking of not only the people of Northern Province but also the entire Tamil people through adopting...
The Forever Victims: Tamil Women in Post-War Sri Lanka
A report co-authored by scholar activists Nimmi Gowrinathan and Kate Cronin-Furman, The Forever Victims: Tamil Women in Post-War Sri Lanka, reveals shocking reality of Tamil Women’s lives in the...
It should not be just stopped in providing assurances alone; the situations of people have to be understood – Workers are saying with despair
G.Krishanthan Akkaraipathanai Senmarket Estate workers said in despair that they have been voting for electing leaders since the time they got their voting rights. But no one has come forward even to...
TNA, TNPF, D.B.S Jeyaraj and ‘Objective’ journalism
Indhiraa “With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous...
Commission a Panel of History Experts and bring out historical truths of Tamils in Sri Lanka: Requests Wigneswaran
Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran has put out a call to commission an Expert Panel with the help of the Tamil Diaspora to study several evidences that have surfaced...
Is the neutrality followed by Chief Minister correct?
Sathurvethi With only two weeks remaining for the parliamentary election in Sri Lanka, it can be observed that all the political parties and its candidates are functioning very busy keeping...
The necessity of Two-Parties politics and the role of Tamil National People Front
-Sathurvethi This time, the election field of Northern Province, particularly in Jaffna, it appears to be quite different from the previous elections. When we compare parliamentary elections held in...
