Integrating Karuna into the democratic process is it the right thing to do?

Integrating Karuna into the democratic process is the largest distortion of the judicial process I have ever seen. Hello this man is responsible for the killings of tens and thousands of Sri Lankan soldiers and civilians, where is the justice? The Rajapakse government who has drowned the Sri Lankan public in war rhetoric has forgotten the latest MP in their party was responsible for the killings of thousands of our fellow soldiers, can the Rajapakse regime get more hypocritical than this. For god’s sake where is the justice for the family members of those soldiers who died at the hands of this man(Karuna)!

Timor – university graduate

Should there be an Eelam?

Listen if you are to ask any sinhalese person today whether its acceptable for a part of our country to be acceded to the LTTE, they would immediately blast you for even aksing such a thing. My point is if there is a significant movement in the international coomunity towards recognizing kosovo as a country (already the US, EU and several other nations have) why can’t they recognize tamil Elam as a country. How different were the chauvinistic sinhala regimes of the Bandaranaika’s and the Rajapakse’s different from the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. It is aboslutely absurd, the sinhalese majority government lost their right to govern over us ever since the 1960’s with the passing of the one language bill. As long as there is a sinhala majority in this country, the Sri Lankan regime will continue to pass dicriminatory measures all in the name of defeating terrorism and the sinhalese majority is sure to turn a blind eye. I am appealing to the inetrnational community what makes us different from Kosovo.

Anonymous

Is the younger generation more supportive of the war?

As far as I am concerned, I belive that in some parts of the country that such as in urbanized cities like Colombo and Kandy the youth don’t support the war one of the possible reasons why the youth in these regions don’t support the war is because they receive a far more liberal education. As a student pursuing the London A level stream, what I have realized is that studying subjects such as History and Geography, I have managed to receive a broader understanding of this conflict in relation to other events around the world in the past. While having also been part of the local curriculum stream, I believe that the local syllabus should broaden its scope and try to integrate a wider scope of views in line with the globalizing world of today. On the other hand I believe that the youth of the rural areas are far more likely to be supportive of the war and far more likely to be racist due to the lack of ethnic diversity in such areas. I also have witnessed a clear pattern, in terms of those families that uphold traditional views also tend to be die hard supporters of the war.

Rana – Sinhalese student

War and Business?

As a businessmen, I believe that the civil conflict does not really help us in any way. From a businessman’s point of view, the war is merely a waste of resources. It would be far more prudent to give precedence to economic development of the country rather than a wasteful war. One thing that the Rajapakse regime should realize is that you need a strong economy to fight a war. During the past few years number of tourists who are an important source of foreign currency, coming to this country has sharply declined due to the unfavourable media reports aired on tv channels such as BBC highlighting the violence in the country.  I mean seriously just sit down and actually think what someone gets in fighting this, seriously what do u get eventhough your valuable tax money is directed at the war effort. As far as I can see the only thing we have got back is a tightening of security measures which has been a further ste back to the business community whose tax money is what funds this war. The cost to econmic developnment because of this war is unbelieveable, Sri Lanka must have lost like 20 years of econmic growth because of this conflict.

Sunil-businessmen

Define a teacher’s role at this perod of time in relation to the conflict?

Right now in the current environment I believ that not only teachers but the entire education system itself has a key role to play in solving this ethnic conflict in the long run. I strongly believe that new subejects whould be introduced into the curriculum such as conflict resolution and more initiatives to be taken to foster cross cultural communication. What we have realized in the past few years is that students studying sciences or maths do not have a full grasp at to the different  dynamics of this conglicts while students who are pursuiting arts courses are far mopre open minded and are able to view an entity from different perspectives. In thjis climate of war its of paramount importance that we understand each other better and especially eradicate this notion of all tamils being supporters of the L.T.T.E. I myself believes that the L.T.T.E. should be defeated however i have also realized the tamil community has been receiving a great deal of second class treatment by the authorities which consists of some narrow-minded Sinhalese. Its imperative that we promote tolerance in this nation since as long as the tamil community feel that they are not welcomed in this country, the L.T.T.E. has a mandate to operate.

– A Student, 20.

Do you support the L.T.T.E. ?

What you have to realize is that we really don’t have a choice. Whether it is for the good or bad there is no other party that is willing to advocate our interests other than the L.T.T.E. My parents used to live in Jaffna when I was small and during their stay there, they absolutely hated the L.T.T.E. big time. They had to live in constant fear that one day officials of the L.T.T.E. would simply walk in and take me away to a L.T.T.E. training camp. Being sick of this environment we somehow managed to make it Colombo, once here we realized that the Sri Lankan government was no better. Not only the government even many people I know of different ethnicities I know, looked at us in a way which is quite different to the way they look at others. When we are stopped at check points, we are subjected to treatment that can easily violate common article 3 in the Geneva Convention regarding “outrages on personal dignity.” I am simply sick of this country, we have no place here and I can’t wait to go to university, abroad. My parents and I both hated the L.T.T.E. but after we came to Colombo and realized all the shit that we had to undergo here I can’t help but to see the L.T.T.E. in a positive light.

Neil – Student

What is your view of this conflict?

Being a member of the international community I believe that the government is merely holding a carrot in front of the Sri Lankan masses, in this case the carrot is the notion that the L.T.T.E. will be defeated in a few months. I have managed to read up[ on the conflict and what I have realized is that successive governments have been claiming this for quite some time whenever they have embarked on a military offensive against the L.T.T.E. I just believe that guerrilla warfare has always got the best of all conventional armies around the world as we saw with Vietnam. It’s a far wiser thing to do for the Sri Lankan government to accede part of the country to the L.T.T.E. and focus on developing the rest of Sri Lanka .

Sam – Student of American origin

Is the War winnable?

As far as I am concerned we can definitely win the war. After a long time the Rajapakse regime is doing what should have been done long time ago. Right now our brave soldiers are only a few meters away from Kilinochi and they will capture it within a few months. This terrorist parasite should be wiped out for good.

Army Servicemen

The War Budget

The recent budget proposals presented by the government has seen an increase in spending  totaling up to Rs.177 Billion making defense quite easily the most expensive item on the budget. Economist Harsha de Silva and Deputy Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya offer their perspectives:

The video is from the No War Zone. Part 2, 3 and 4 of the program can be viewed on the YaTV Youtube channel.

Pragati in November : The Sri Lanka Dilemma

Indian National Interest’s Pragati publication focuses on India’s Sri Lanka policy.

Download it here.