Lakshman Gunasekara’s Reflections on the Political Turmoil in Late 2018: Three Essays

Lakshman Gunasekera

ONE. Lakshman Gunasekara: “Politics vs Constitutionalism,” in Horizons, 9 December 2018 …

When the Bandaranaike International Memorial Conference Hall (BMICH, what a mouthful) began hosting conferences in those old-fashioned 1970s, we, the ordinary citizens hadn’t a hope of freely strolling into its premises (let alone its halls). One needed a conference invitation to enter the gates and some ‘delegate’ or ‘media’ tag to enter the main hall or ‘committee rooms’ (as they were quaintly termed then). Today, in our lower-middle-income country comfort zone, people are constantly streaming in and out of the BMICH, for weddings, exhibitions, conferences, convocations, concerts and seminars, all at the same time (and I am sure there is romance in those verdant gardens).   

Anne Abayasekara’s Sturdy Witness to Our Troubled Times

Suvendrini Kanagasabai Perera, in Island, 26 December 2018, where the title reads “In the thick of it: Anne Abayasekara, Unfaltering Witness. Review of book – ‘Telling It Like It Is’ … emphasis via highlights below being the work of The Editor, Thuppahi

Reflecting on her life at an address to the Rotary Club in 2012, Anne Abayasekara made a telling comparison between the life of the creative writer and what she described as her own “enduring love affair with journalism”: “The distinctive feature about journalism … is that in writing for newspapers, you don’t sit in solitude, but have to be out on the street, in the thick of people and events.”

Anne Abayasekara spent over 65 years in the thick of it, thoroughly enmeshed in a world she relished and clearly loved, but nonetheless viewed with great clarity. Her extraordinary career spans Independence in 1948 (she attended the festivities as a young reporter for the fashion pages), the three grim decades of the war and the unpromising peace that has succeeded it. Through it all, she held up a mirror to the society she loved, bearing witness to its atrocities and most egregious failures, as to its small acts of grace and moments of beauty. This carefully distilled selection of her writings provides an important snapshot of this period. At the same time, emerging from its pages is a picture of the writer herself: a spirited, large-hearted, deeply humane woman, characterised, above all, by a rare, sustained courage.

Confronting Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Q & A in 2018 – Swedish Journalist Mikaelsson

Johan Mikaelsson, in Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, 5 November 2018, where the title is “Impunity Island: Sri Lanka’s “predator emeritus” on rebound,”

Many local journalists feel discomfort when they hear the name Gotabaya Rajapaksa^[1]. He is seen as a ruthless person, who was behind the murder wave that took the lives of their colleagues. They see it as unthinkable to contact him and ask critical questions. The few foreign journalists who tried to put some pressure on him when he held his powerful position 2005–2015 were met with anger. After 2015, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been almost invisible in international media.

 

‘Gota’, the nick-name under which he is usually known, is now often surrounded by a glow, a shimmering luster. Many want to see more of ‘Gota’, they regard him as a wonder maker. Most editors avoid challenging him. A few journalists in the domestic English-language press have asked difficult questions, but ‘Gota’ appears to be ready to move on, possibly as a candidate in the presidential election in 2020.

Apey Ayithivaasikam: Guarding Sri Lanka’s Right?

Sri Lanka Guardian ….

• Sri Lankan President Sirisena Disrespected Democracy
• මෛත්‍රී ව්‍යවස්ථාව උල්ලංඝනය කළේද?
• දේශපාලනික වශයෙන් විනාශ වී ඇත්තේ රනිල් නොව මහින්දය
• මෛත්‍රීගේ දෙවැනි වාරය
• The political dog fight in Sri Lanka
• Price of misperceptions and misreads on Indo-Lanka Relations
• Constitutional Crisis in Sri Lanka: Operation Black Friday
• Respect for the Constitution and the Rule of Law must prevail in Sri Lanka
• Sri Lankans in Australia rejects the unconstitutional Prime Minister appointed
• Sri Lankan Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa arrives at the FCID in Running Dress
• Chinese Envoy in Sri Lanka meets with Prime Ministers
• Unconstitutional Dismissal
• A Presidential Coup in Sri Lanka: A Major Political Crisis
• Learning from Sisyphus?
• http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2018/10/the-political-dog-fight-in-sri-lanka.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+srilankaguardian%2FIGKI+%28Sri+Lanka+Guardian%29  

Secularism on the Wane in South Asia

P K Balachandran, in Financial Times, 27 October 2018 -where the title reads “Decline of Secularism in South Asia”

South Asia’s multi-religious countries, namely India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, started off with a noble wish to be ‘secular’ and keep religion out of the business of the State. Hindu-majority India, under the leadership of the avowedly secular Jawaharlal Nehru, explicitly stated that it would be secular.

Nehru

Jinnah–Getty Images DS Senanaayke

Land Acquisition Processes in Sri Lanka, 1948-2018

Gerald H. Peiris, being  an article serialized recently in The Island, under the following heading  “Alleged ‘Land Grabbing’ by the Security Forces in Sri Lanka” … with highlighting emphasis being impositions by The Editor, Thuppahi

In view of the significance accorded in recent public debate and discussion on the subject of ‘land grabbing’ in several conflict-ridden countries of the Third World it is necessary to devote attention to a series of facts that are of crucial relevance to a balanced understanding of the related situation in Sri Lanka.

Figure 1 – post-conflict releases of land from the Palali HSZ

Mark Knight’s Retaliation by Cartoon: Touche!

THOSE who stew and fume in this world as fervent feminist victims –or victims tout court — are asked to look at themselves …. as incisively as the good cartoonist does.